Running Through Time and Space
by ninjasdrinkingtea
Summary: "I'm so sorry, Matilda. You're about to see another version of me, one from either the past or future, perhaps one with an entirely different face," She felt the panic rising inside of her, tightening around her chest as she struggled to breathe from the shock that had enveloped her. "It'll be alright. Don't stop running." 10/OC and 11/OC. Tiny bit of 9/OC. Just a bit. Perhaps.
1. First Hello

**Hello! I've wanted to write a Doctor Who story for sooooooo long now, but I've never really seemed to find the time or proper motivation to start one. The general idea of my story has literally been floating around my head for some time now. **

**Some of you may see this as a typical Doctor Who OC/story/plot/whatever there is to really complain about, but you know what? I wanted my own sort of spin on it. There are hundreds of Doctor Who fanfics on here with hundreds of OCs and story lines with the Doctor and other characters. So, you know, I thought to myself _why not?_ **

**Enjoy! The only character in this so far to belong to me is Matilda Falconer, but the rest belong to the BBC and the fantastic creators and writers of Doctor Who.  
**

Matilda blinked, once, twice...several more times, despite the fact that her eyes had adjusted to her new surroundings. They scanned across the room she was stood in the centre of, sharply whipping her head around and eyeing each area in sections. The peach-brown and white colour scheme didn't spark any recognition in her head.

She was in a kitchen, and not her own or anyone else's she knew at that. While trying to process what had happened and what she was going to do, a faint sound of a door creaking open came from another part of the house nearby, and a voice followed shortly behind it.

"Right, I need to use your kitchen as a lab!" Matilda froze, eyes widening and stomach plummeting within her. Automatically she went to turn, eyes wildly ransacking the room for the nearest exit. They landed on a set of doors which appeared to lead out into the back garden, but before she could dart towards them, the voice came again; this time louder and closer than before. "Cook up some cubes! See what—!" Matilda spun around on cue to face the owner of the voice as they entered the kitchen, and she immediately knew that her chances of escaping unnoticed had been blown.

The man was of average build, slender and fairly tall. He was dressed in brown trousers and a light blue and white pin-stripe shirt, a tweed jacket hung around his lanky frame and a navy blue bow tie fasted beneath his collar. His face was clean-shaven and the brown floppy hair on his head was partly swept off to the side. Plastic tubing was wound together and hung over his shoulder as he entered and a brief look of shock passed across his face when he took her in. She did the same, her eyebrows drawing together as she tried to put a name to his face. Had she seen him before?

Matilda found herself at a loss of what to say. She raised her hands in defence, her hazel eyes wide and pleading as she tried to defend her presence in what was presumably the man's kitchen. Or, if not, his friends, from what he had said moments before.

"Look, this seems bad and this is going to sound absolutely crazy...but, I don't know how I've got here and—!" She quickly stammered out, but before she could continue, two figures entered the kitchen and she was interrupted by one of them.

"Mattie!" A woman cheered, holding a small, blue plastic crate in her hands with several random items inside. She was dressed in a blue blouse and her centre-parted auburn her fell down past her shoulders. Matilda felt herself flush and her brow furrow with confusion as her eyes flickered from the two who had recently entered, from the woman to the other man standing beside her. He was smiling at her warmly, his dirty blonde hair combed back off his forehead and carrying thick, wounded plastic tubing like the other guy. As he placed it on the table, the woman continued, eyeing the confused other woman with amusement, an audible Scottish accent in her voice as she spoke. "We were wondering when you were going to show up..."

Matilda stared at the woman as if she had two heads. She'd literally just _appeared_, in her _kitchen_, but she was just speaking to her as if she was some sort of...old _friend? _And why did the three of them look...so..._familiar?_

As she went to reply back, to mutter some sort of confused response, she was taken into someone's arms. The arms that belonged to the guy wearing the bow tie, to be exact. She felt the air caught at the back of her throat as she became rigid, her cheek pressed firmly against the man's chest as he wound his arms around her waist, chin rested on the very top of her head.

She didn't return the embrace, though, her arms stuck out from each side of him and frozen in the air, not wrapping around his frame like he was doing so to her. He quickly pulled away, a small grin on his face as he did so, and then leaned down to bump his forehead against her own.

"_Finally_," He muttered softly, not taking note of the stunned look written across her face. "The past few days have been very _quiet_." He released her, pulling away from her smaller frame and moving around the young woman to go to the sink. Matilda let her arms fall limply by her sides, staring down at the space where he had stood moments ago.

"Right," The other man began, making sure the tubing was fully laid out on the kitchen table to the right of her. Matilda heard the clattering of a metal pot and the sound of a tap running behind her. "I'm due at work." He flashed Matilda a mock-roll of his eyes, a kind look still intact on his face.

"_What?_" The man with the tweed jacket demanded behind her, the sound of a tap running as he spoke. She partly turned as the other guy and the red-haired woman drew closer to their friend, giving him bemused looks. "You've got a _job?_"

The bloke with the combed back hair had his hands raised in the air, an exasperated look on his face. "W-Yeah? Of course I've got a job!" He quickly snapped his head towards the auburn-haired woman to his right. She was still holding that blue basket with the random objects, one of which was a keyboard. Her eyes were narrowed on the figure behind Matilda, the man in tweed. "What do you think we do when we're not with you and Mattie?" Matilda frowned at this, her confusion bubbling deeper within her especially when the man flashed her a bit of an annoyed look as well.

"I imagine mostly kissing." The man from behind her stated, to which the blonde haired-bloke beside her made a look on his face that appeared as if he agreed with the guy in a way. The younger woman who stood out-of-place beside the three stared at each of them, one after the other, with the most incredulous look on her face that they had never truly seen before.

"Hypocrite." The woman scoffed and with the slight shake of her head, the red-head spoke again. "I write travel articles for magazines and Rory heals the sick." She explained before turning and placing the basket down onto the side to her right.

The man, who was apparently needed at work, quickly cut in. "My shift starts in an hour. You don't know where my scrubs are?" Right, a nurse or a trainee doctor then. He'd directed the question towards the other woman, who rolled her eyes and pushed off from the counter that she'd briefly leant against.

"In the lounge, where you left them."

Matilda felt herself back away slowly from the pair as the other man, the nurse presumably, trailed out of the kitchen and into the hallway. Her eyes followed him as he disappeared into the room to the left of the hallway. She desperately wanted to ask what was going on, to ask who they were and why they looked so damn familiar. But the words seemed caught in her throat.

Was she going into shock?

The woman pressed a hand to the top of her head and the other onto the kitchen table for support, palm pressed against her skull. She half expected an unbearable burst of pain take over her, for blood to suddenly spurt down the side of her head.

"Oh, have you got a headache?" Someone asked directly from behind her, depositing the small, blue crate of items beside her on the tabletop she stood beside. She jolted, clearly startled, but the man with the bow-tie didn't notice. He instead began to take out each random object bit by bit from the crate, placing it together in pieces before the two of them. The other woman, the woman with the blouse and auburn hair, appeared on her other side, facing the brown-haired man.

"Mattie," She gave her a lightly concerned look. "Just go into the cupboard over there, Rory keeps a small box of paracetamol on the top shelf." She nodded over towards a white cupboard close by to the kitchen sink, but Matilda didn't move.

_Rory? _Was that the other bloke who had gone off into the lounge?

She didn't catch the look that was directed her way from the man, and neither did the red-head. His mouth twitched down into a frown for a moment before he turned his attention to his friend.

He placed down a glass top over the blue plate where a black, lone cube sat in the centre, picking up a magnifying glass as he spoke. "All the Ponds, with their house and their jobs and their everyday lives..." He peered through the glass, inspecting another onyx cube and throwing the woman a look before glancing down again. "The journalist and the nurse. Long way from Leadworth." A whirring, buzzing sound caught Matilda's attention. The man in tweed was holding a device in his right hand, something that triggered an unsettling feeling in her stomach as the green light at the end lit up, appearing dim in the light of the room. He hovered it over some wires that the other woman held forwards, an amused look on her face.

Where had she heard that sound before?

"We think it's been ten years! Not for you two or Earth, but for us. Ten years older. Ten years of you and Mattie, on an off." She threw a look towards the strawberry-blonde, her green eyes twinkling. She caught the look of confusion, her own perfectly shaped eyebrows twitching downwards as she gave the younger woman a look of concern. "Hey, are you alright?"

Both of their attention was now fully set on Matilda, who had taken a step or two away from the table and the two strangers. She shook her head after a few seconds of hesitation, opening her mouth to say something, _anything_, but the words just wouldn't form on her lips. She shut her mouth once again, her hand rising to her head and her eyes fluttering down to the kitchen floor.

"Where have you just been?" Matilda blinked up at the man, taking in the new expression which had replaced the soft smile on his face before. He now looked suddenly worried; she could see the dread on his face. She swallowed the lump in her throat, but something caught her attention and she was forced to snap her eyes away from the concerned bloke.

Her eyes were planted on the front door in alarm at the very far end of the hall and immediately, she drew backwards slightly, but not before reaching forwards and grasping onto the ginger's arm. She yanked her back, pulling her with her as the woman protested. Mere seconds later, the sound of glass smashing and wood being booted against a hard surface was heard, and the three watched as soldiers dressed in black thundered down the hall through the smashed down door, guns in their grasps.

Matilda felt herself being yanked backwards too.

"_Clear!_" Bow-tie swept forwards in front of the two women while the soldiers drew closer, before finally standing in the doorway of the room. "Trap one, kitchen secured!" The three twisted their heads around, eyes wide and startled to see several more soldiers gathered outside the doors leading to the garden, each of them surrounding the exterior of the kitchen on the patio outside. One communicated through his radio to the other who stood in the doorway of the kitchen.

The three of them looked at one another momentarily, before turning their focus onto the approaching figure that was making his way towards the kitchen.

The blonde nurse was followed through into the kitchen with his hands raised in the air, his upper half-dressed in a long, white sleeved t-shirt and a turquoise blue scrub shirt and his lower half almost completely unclothed; except for the orange underwear he was wearing.

An exasperated look was on his face as he spoke before he even made it into the kitchen. "There are soldiers all over my house," He snapped, clearly a bit irritated, and then flung his arms upwards at his sides. "And I'm in my pants!" He let his arms fall back down at his sides, shaking his head as the ginger replied, a slight pout on her face.

And despite her situation, Matilda laughed out loud, standing beside the man with the bow-tie.

"My whole life I've dreamed of saying that, and I miss it by being someone else."

The man beside Matilda found the situation amusing too, throwing her a grin as he clapped his hands together once in glee. The poor nurse gave the ginger an odd look, his hands folded over himself slightly.

"All these muscles, and they still don't know how to knock." A new voice was heard, drawing the foursome's attention away from the funny predicament for a moment and towards the owner of the voice, causing the half-dressed bloke to come to stand beside Matilda.

All four watched as a blonde haired woman in a trench coat weaved her way through the soldiers, continuing to speak, and her stride casual. "Sorry about the raucous entrance. Spike in Artron energy reading at this address. In the light of the last twenty-four hours, we had to check it out, and the dogs do love a good run out." She paused for a moment after flashing a brief look at a soldier who stood rigid in the kitchen, gun held stiffly in his hands. She then gave the four of them a light smile, hands remaining in the pockets of her grey trousers.

The woman breathlessly greeted them. "Hello. Kate Stewart, head of scientific research at UNIT." She'd removed one hand and pressed it to her chest during her introduction, eyes trailing over each of them individually before landing onto the brown-haired man beside Matilda. "And with dress sense like that," She paused again, her hand that had previously been pressed to her chest now slipping into the pocket of her trousers once again and pulling out a rectangular device. Kate raised it forwards, directly in front of the man's chest, and the devise began to beep a few times. "You must be the Doctor."

Matilda felt her stomach plummet and her eyes widen. Her knees wobbled and she immediately went to grab for something, which unfortunately for the man on her left, was the guy half-dressed in his scrubs. She clutched onto his arm, rocking forwards slightly while he turned to her in alarm.

"Mattie?" His words were laced with worry, causing Kate Stewart, the red-head and of course, the Doctor, to turn their attention to the younger woman. The Time Lord, who was very clearly panicked at the girl's state, gently took hold of her arm to steady her. But as soon as he did this, Matilda flinched back and snatched herself away from his grasp, and also the nurse's. The four others watched as she drew backwards, hazel eyes wide and suddenly, she was able to form the words to speak.

"No,_ no_..._no, no, no!_" Well, or she could repeatedly just say the word _no_. She found herself digging through the pockets of her grey suit jacket, searching for her mobile, for her wallet or any sense of proof that this wasn't actually _real_. She pats at the pockets a few more times, panic in her eyes. "Th-this isn't real! It _can't _be!"

Each of their eyes widened at her protests, the Doctor's face was twisted in hurt. He takes a step towards her, hands raised slightly in such a way as if he was approaching a frightened animal, but she automatically takes another stride back, raising her own hands in defence.

"You never said where you'd just been." He stated, his face turning solemn, no longer trying to come closer towards her. She shook her head, raising one of her hands to press against the very top of her skull. His eyes followed it, shaking his head slightly to himself. Another emotion mixed with the solemn look that had formed over his features, a look of grief.

Matilda blinked the tears back, pursing her lips for a moment as her eyes flickered down towards the floor. "I climbed into this taxi." She swallowed, the anxiety tightening itself around her chest as she spoke, the realisation dawning on her.

"I didn't put my seatbelt on."

"You didn't put your seatbelt on."

The two of them, Matilda and the Doctor, had said those two sentences simultaneously. The young woman planted her gaze onto the man with the bow tie, a distraught look on her face as she drew in a sharp intake of air.

Tentatively yet quickly, she walked around the four of them, removing her gaze from the Time Lord, his two companions and Kate Stewart. "Sorry." She muttered, throwing a disturbed yet apologetic look in their general sort of direction, her shoulders squared as she went to exist the kitchen. "I-I can't. Sorry."

She stepped into the hallway, ignoring the gazes that burned into the back of her head, but before she could go very far, one of the soldiers in black uniform stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

_It was just one more thing!_

"Oh, _come on!_" She snapped, the haunted look on her face being replaced by an incredulous, irritated stare directed at the armed soldier. "Out out my way!"

The soldier, who stood unmoving and unblinking, stared straight ahead with an expressionless look on his face. "I cannot do that, ma'am." He replied, not taking any notice of the appalled look he received. She rocked back slightly, her face twisting into a frown.

What had _she _done? She'd just appeared! She hadn't broken any laws or caused any trouble; she hadn't offended anyone or knew any information?

"_Did you just call me ma'am?_" She lowly demanded, eyes fixing a cold glare on the soldier, which, once again, he took no notice of. She shook her head, reaching one hand up, presumably to push him away, but her hand froze in the air and she decided not to do so. With a sigh, she flexed her fingers out, wincing, and turned left thought the first door to go into the living room. She glanced to her right, a look of despair on her face as her eyes searched the room for a phone.

From behind her back in the kitchen, she heard the soft voice of Kate Stewart. "Is that not Matilda Falconer? Is she alright?"

No, she certainly wasn't, but the Doctor thought otherwise, quickly brushing the comment off. "Yes, yes...she'll be fine. Now, tell me, since when did science run the...?"

Matilda had stopped listening, all of her attention and focus immediately drawn towards the unmistakably familiar, royal blue 1960's police call box which stood tall on the left hand side of her; tucked at the back left hand corner of the living room. This was the last reason, the last sign and slap in the face that this was what she had clicked it onto be.

It was mad, and extremely unlikely, but Matilda Falconer appeared to be trapped in an episode of a British television show. When her friend Beth had insisted that she should start watching Doctor Who and that it'd totally suck the twenty-three year old in, she didn't think that _literally _could.

She paced back and forth for a few minutes, eyes scanning over the furniture, over the blue and teal colour scheme, over each trinket and photo frame in the room. Occasionally she would throw a look towards the blue box that stood behind her, unassuming and quiet.

_Of course it's quiet, you idiot! It's a __**box!**_

No, Beth said had said something odd a few times. She'd gushed about how she, as in the, well, box itself, was _alive. _As if it had a soul.

Did it?

She found herself frozen, staring at the old police call box with wide eyes, her mouth parted open as if she was about to say something. For a moment, she was ready to. She could feel words urging to come out of her mouth, her vocal chords ready to be put to use again.

Matilda averted her gaze away, shaking her head and focusing on the mirror hung above the wooden mantel, eyes fixated on her reflection. She approached closer, noting that her appearance hadn't particularly changed since when she'd last seen it that morning, when she was getting ready.

Her wavy, strawberry-blonde hair was still kept in its messy bun, her eyes were still hazel in colour and she was still dressed in her formal clothes for work that she'd shoved on in a rush before leaving to climb into the taxi. She tilted her head forwards, now inches from her reflection, and peered up at the very top of her skull.

Nothing had changed, except for the fact that there was no blood, no shards of glass lodged into the scalp, her skull fully intact and not dented. No trace of the accident, no trace of the fact that she was possibly dead.

At that was when it suddenly occurred to her that she very well _could _be.

There was a photograph to the left of the mirror, stuck against the blue-green painted wall above the many, random trinkets below. Four people, four adults grouped together and either smiling or pulling a face at the camera. From the right it went from the dirty blonde, pulling a mock-surprised face, the red-head, who had a grin in fact, one arm around him and the other around the other man, the Doctor. He was leant back slightly, smiling and without his tweed jacket. His arm was wrapped around the shoulders of a young woman with shoulder length, off-blonde hair, who was simply smiling directly at the camera, a soft look in her eyes.

It was Matilda. Only, of course, she couldn't remember having the picture taken.


	2. First Goodbye

"This is your first time, isn't it?"

She turned her head to see the man with the dirty-blonde, combed back hair staring at her, holding the trousers of his scrubs in his hands beside the doorway closest to the front door. Behind him, the soldiers dressed entirely in black were beginning to march out of the property one by one.

"They're all leaving; Kate and the Doctor have agreed that the best thing to do is watch the cubes. We're going to keep them informed." Matilda didn't reply at first, instead pursing her lips and averting her stare towards the photo of the four of them stuck on the wall beside the mirror.

"I don't remember getting this picture taken. But...that's me, isn't it?"

The man, the nurse that she couldn't remember the name of, awkwardly shoved his other leg through the other leg hole of his scrubs, nodding once. "Yeah."

She turned to face him once again, her eyebrows drawn together and her lips twisted into a frown. "But _how?_"

"Because you haven't done it yet." The Doctor appeared in the doorway at the far end of the lounge, the ginger stood behind him, eyeing Matilda with a look of concern and sympathy.

She didn't like it.

"You're..." Matilda began slowly, clicking her fingers as she tried to remember the man's name, the _actor's _name. Beth had yapped into her ear about him, she could remember when the internet exploded with the news that he was the next guy to take on the role of the Time Lord.

Bow-tie inclined his head slightly, raising his eyebrows and patiently waiting for her to spit out what she was trying to say. She noticed the brief sparkle in his eye, pursing his lips and taking a tentative step towards her.

"I'm...?"

"Something-Smith." She paused for a moment, suddenly hoping that the guy wouldn't get offended that she didn't know who he was. As, well, it must be a bit insulting she supposed; being in this business on a popular television show and someone not knowing what your name even was. "Sorry, I'm terrible with names."

But this for some reason brought a smile to his lips.

"Sometimes," He chuckled, bowing his head down and shaking his head slightly. He glanced up at her once again. "I have been known as Smith before. John Smith."

No, that wasn't right. John Smith? She shook her head. The name didn't click in her mind, it sounded odd and she knew that the name John just didn't match with his face.

"Mattie..." The auburn-haired woman sighed, about to say something else, but she trailed off, the words stuck in her throat. She swallowed, closing her mouth at her own will, but before she could open it again, Matilda seemed to jolt forwards, her face brightening.

"That's it! Matt!" She grinned slightly, a bit glad that she'd managed to sort of quickly remember the bloke's name. "Matt Smith. Ha, _gotcha!_" She raised her pointed finger towards the actor, expecting this façade that he'd built up to melt away into a relieved sort of look. For a bunch of people, including the cast, crew and other actors to appear, along with her friends, and cheer about how they'd managed to prank her.

But instead his face dropped, his smile falling entirely and his shoulders drooping in sort of defeat. His hands were raised up slightly in front of them, and he quietly begun to wrung them, letting out a loud yet sad sigh. "This really is your first time." A humourless, sad chuckle escaped his lips, before turning slightly to the ginger beside him, throwing her a look, and another towards the nurse; now fully dressed in his work uniform. With another sigh, he forced a smile onto his face and clapped his hands together once, like he'd just done so in the kitchen before.

"Right, introductions, as this is your first hello! Mattie, this is Amy," He gestured to the red-head. "And that is Rory. Both married, a journalist and a nurse. _The Girl Who Waited_ and the _Last Centurion_." He suddenly stopped where he was, his eyes widening slightly before quickly bringing a finger to his lips, rocking on his heels. "Oops, _spoilers._"

Matilda raised her own eyebrows, flashing each member of the supposed couple a look of disbelief. "You're both going to keep this up too?"

"Keep what up?" The man, now dubbed Rory, questioned.

"Stop it." Mattie snapped suddenly. "I'm sure this is a right laugh, but really, I've never really been into the show. I never seemed to find the time, alright? Just...drop this whole charade, I've already managed to catch you lot out. The prank's over."

Amy, or well, the actress, laughed, giving Matilda an incredulous look. "You think we're all in on a prank?"

"Well, I suppose she would, as we're all part of some sort of soap opera or something back from where she last was." The Doctor lightly explained, keeping a steady, wary gaze on the younger woman. She flushed, averting her gaze away and scanning her eyes around the room in search of something

"A _soap opera?_" Rory spluttered. "We're in a _soap_ _opera_ somewhere?" He'd directed the question towards the Doctor really, because the younger woman didn't seem to have many of the answers, but Matilda managed to mutter out a reply.

"Something like that. I think it's more of a drama, lots of sci-fi of course. It's about a bloke who goes around everywhere in this blue box, changing his face a lot and picks up people along the way to travel with him."

Looking slightly impressed, the Doctor's smile broadened. "I thought you weren't really into it?"

"I wasn't." She retorted, making her way towards the large window on her left. She paused, for a moment, pulling back the thin window netting that slightly obscured her view. She peered out into the street, eyeing each individual car and studying the park behind the black railings directly in front of the house. "A friend of mine loved it, that's all. She insisted I had to watch it; she even gave me a shot of her entire box sets. I just, well," She paused again, turning to face them all again. "never got round to it."

"You will one day. The whole thing will make more sense once you do."

Matilda stiffened, swallowing at the light tone laced in his words. Each of them were keeping up this strong, convincing front that this _was_ reality, this was happening and they weren't part of a big, exaggerated prank.

She needed evidence.

Tilting her head slightly, she pursed her lips and scanned around the room again. "Um...Amy?"

Amy, who had become oddly quiet since this revelation that this was supposedly Matilda's first introduction to them, took a tentative step forwards, looking a bit alarmed. "Yes?"

"Do you have a laptop that I could just use quickly?" She asked politely and hesitantly. Amy wavered where she stood, pivoting slightly on the spot, eyes searching around the room for a moment herself.

"Oh, uh, sure! Hold on," She sort of stammered, throwing the Doctor a startled look to which he nodded once in return—a silent reassurance. Amy turned and disappeared through the door closest to her, hurrying down the hall and to another part of the house.

"I'll—uh, just...go and help her find it." Rory muttered awkwardly, before turning on his heel and darting out the door that was closest to him, the one closest to the bottom of the stairs and the front door. Matilda heard him and Amy bolting up the stairs, leaving just her and this man with the bow-tie, who claimed to be the Doctor.

She wrapped her arms around her frame, chewing on the inside of her cheek and not meeting the Doctor's scrutinizing stare. Out of the corner of her eye, he swayed slightly, hands still clasped together and his lips pursed in anticipation.

"Matilda," He murmured her name, taking a hesitant, careful step forward. She turned her focus onto him, taking note of the fact that this was the first time that he had called her by her full name, how she was usually called. She stood her ground as he approached, twisting his hands together and keeping his gaze locked on her. "I know that you're finding it difficult to believe and trust me." He stopped in front of her, swallowing as she fought the urge to take a large stride back from him.

She almost did when he unclasped his hands and hesitantly reached down to take one of her own. Turning rigid, she watched carefully as he held onto her hand, raising it up slightly so it was level with his chest, taking it with his other hand too. Ensured that she wasn't going to snatch her hand away and dart off, he pressed her palm gently to the left hand side of his chest—directly over his beating heart.

Her brow furrowed at the feeling of the thudding organ within him as he smiled down at her slightly, a soft look in his eye. Then, to her surprise, he lifted her palm from where he'd placed it, shifting it diagonally downwards slightly towards the other side, the right side, and pressed it down once again.

Her eyes almost popped out of her head and she almost flinched with shock and disbelief when her hand picked up the quick yet steady beat of another organ, another _heart. _

"But you should really start, because I _am_ the Doctor."

He did have two heart beats, two hearts. Something clicked in her head, something that Beth had said to do with his hearts, how, well, he had more than _one. _

"Okay," She began, her hand still pressed against the right side of his ribcage. "Let's say that I was beginning to. But answer me this, _how do you know my name?_"

His smile widened once again. "Well, telling you would just spoil it, won't it?" He drummed his fingers lightly on the back of her hand, a glint in his eyes. "_Spoilers_."

Matilda narrowed her eyes slightly. "Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Saying 'spoilers'."

A slight pout on his face, he rocked back slightly on his heels. "Oh, I've only said it twice—!"

"And that's enough for me." She retorted, pulling gently at her hand but he didn't release it. "My friend used to say it when she wouldn't tell me something important. And, well, you've got this look on your face."

"And what's that then?" He leaned back towards her, cocking an eyebrow. She inclined her head a little, studying his features and the vaguely amused expression on his face. In the light his eyes appeared unmistakably green and she couldn't help but note how his chin was slightly on the larger side. With the shake of her head, her eyes flickered down his frame and back to his face once again.

"Like you know lots of stuff that I don't. Like it's some sort of private joke."

The Doctor didn't say anything to that. Just swayed slightly, staring down at her with an oddly sort of soft look in his green eyes. It made her feel slightly awkward and uncomfortable, because she wasn't she _why _he was giving her this off look. It almost looked sad.

"Look at you two, flirting already." Amy chided from the doorway to the lounge closest to them both. Matilda blinked, startled by the woman's sudden presence and turned her head to see the ginger and the nurse, Rory. They didn't seem fazed by the interaction between the two, they looked almost amused if anything. And that was when it occurred to Matilda what Amy had said seconds before.

_Flirting_.

She winced, tugging her hands gently from the man. He sighed and this time released her, but oddly enough rather reluctantly.

They hadn't been flirting, had they? They were _bickering _if anything!

Although, however, she supposed that the hand-holding thing pressed against his chest over his heart—correction, _hearts_, would have looked like some sort of display of affection. She felt a hot prickling sensation rise up her neck and she immediately brought her hand up to scratch the back of it, swallowing and turning away slightly.

"He was just proving a point, that's all." She muttered, heavily disliking how uncomfortable she suddenly felt and awkward under their scrutinizing gazes. Eyes darting around briefly and trying to compose herself, she turned back once again, throwing her hand up slightly to gesture to the man's chest. "Two hearts. Things are beginning to seem a bit more real now, although, you'll have to bear with me, because the three of you are obviously far ahead on this than I am." She paused, glancing between them before flashing the Doctor an irritated yet serious look. "And keeping information from me isn't going to help."

"We can't tell you everything, Matilda Falconer." He replied smoothly. From his tone and the look on his face, she automatically knew that his word was final. He wasn't going to budge and release what he knew and he certainly wasn't going to break underneath her calculating, cold glare.

"Fine. That's fine. But I think the least you could do it explain how you know my name and why the three of you are acting so matey with me." She turned her attention to Amy and Rory, eyebrows drawing together. "This is your house, am I right? Well I just _appeared_, in your _kitchen_, didn't I? Any normal pair would demand to know who the hell I was, bash me over the head maybe, even call the police, but you two? You act as if you're glad to see me, you '_wondered when I was going to show up_', you both walk around me with ease and call me _Mattie._" She turned to the Doctor and pointed a finger at him. "And _you_. You keep looking at me weirdly. But hey, we've already established that, haven't we? That you know lots of stuff and that you're going to keep me in the dark about it." They both stared each other down, an unsettling tension bubbling between the pair.

"The laptop," Amy suddenly cut in, noticing how uncomfortable the atmosphere in the room was. Matilda turned to her as Amy quickly strode forwards and placed herself between the pair, plonking the laptop into Matilda's open arms. "It's already connected to the wifi."

"Thank you." Matilda replied sincerely. She turned, eyes landing onto the armchair behind her and headed towards it, perching down onto the cushion seat and carefully opening the laptop. The three watched, taking places on the sofa to Matilda's right. While the device booted up, the young woman quietly drummed her fingers against the metallic panel beside the mouse pad, glancing towards the window.

It was so sunny outside.

The Windows blue opening screen caught Matilda's attention, but to her despair, it wasn't the desktop, but the display screen beforehand which required a password to be entered. Amy appeared to have temporarily locked her laptop earlier and not simply switching it off. She grimaced at the password box, pursing her lips for a moment and tearing her gaze from the screen.

She didn't know Amy at all. She knew she was married, to Rory, very likely—because they both wore a wedding ring on each of their left hands and lived together...she knew that she was a journalist, from what had been said in the kitchen, that she traveled with the Doctor and of course, knew Matilda. Oh, and from what she'd gathered, her last name was Pond, from what had also been said before too.

With an almost inaudible sigh, she went to ask Amy for the password, but then stopped herself when seeing the display icon for Amy's user account.

It was a picture of the painting, _A Vase with Twelve Sunflowers_, by Vincent Van Gogh. Matilda shifted slightly, her eyes staring intently at the icon as she chewed the inside of her cheek.

1888.

Why 1888? She wasn't sure. It was a gut feeling, something about the painting sparked recognition in her mind and immediately, she leaned forwards and began to type in her first and hopefully only guess of the password into the password box.

_'sunflowers89'_

She cursed under her breath when her finger stabbed down on the '9' key instead of the '8', but before she could correct her mistake she'd already stabbed down on the enter key. Matilda waited for the system to tell her that the password she'd entered was in correct, but to her surprise, the desktop loaded up after a moment. The device beeped as the system started itself, loading the rest of the icons on the display.

"Wait, did you just log on?" Amy demanded, eyebrows raised in surprise.

Matilda didn't tear her gaze from the screen, opening up the internet browser from the shortcut icon in the top left hand corner of the screen. "Yeah."

"But _how? _I've got a password on that!"

"Uh," The woman glanced up at the ginger. "I guessed, actually. Your birthday's in 1989, right?"

Amy and Rory looked at the strawberry-blonde with complete astonishment, while the Doctor looked something between amused and somewhat proud.

"Yes? But...how did you _know _that?"

"I didn't. I was meant to type in 88, but I accidentally put in 89. Your user icon is a still life of the sunflowers that Vincent Van Gogh painted in 1888. I took a wild guess that you were, well, you know, a fan of his work and hoped that it was your password. But because I typed the date wrong and still got into your account, then that'd mean that it was your birthday instead of the date, because well...if you were such a lover of his work, then you wouldn't have an incorrect date down for one of his pieces?" She rambled slightly, turning her focus back onto the screen. "Sorry. I should've just asked."

"Are you a detective yet?"

Matilda snapped her head up in alarm and incredulity; opening her mouth to demand to know how he knew that she was on the path to becoming a detective constable, but from the look on Rory's face she realised that they all seemingly already knew who she was. She closed her mouth, wavering for a moment, before glancing down at the laptop screen.

"No, still in training."

Hesitating for a moment, she then typed in the two important words of her first search for evidence in the search box on Google, chewing down on her lips and staring at the screen intently as the search engine processed her request.

She excepted a link to the BBC website, to Wikipedia pages, news articles, fan-based websites, images, cast members, _related searches_...but all she got out of 'Doctor Who' were links to online sites listing different conditions and symptoms, images of _medical _doctors and links to the NHS and local GP surgeries in the area. And that was only on the first page of thousands and thousands of results.

Perplexed, she sighed. "That box of yours, what is she called?" She watched as each of them shared amused looks and she flushed, a bit embarrassed for a reason that she couldn't really explain. Biting her tongue, she waited patiently, fighting against the urge to snap at them and just walk out the door. Her patience was wearing thin and she was prepared to just walk out, call a taxi and get them to drive her home.

Well, if home was even in driving distance.

"You called her a _'she'_ automatically." The Doctor smiled at the young woman, the odd look returning to his eyes again.

Matilda shifted in her seat, shrugging slightly and not really understanding what was so funny about that. "So? Come on, just answer the question."

"She's called the TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space." He eyed the expressionless look on her face before she went back to typing.

'_Doctor Who TARDIS_'

Only similar results came through in the next search. She threw a calculating look towards the blue box at the back of the lounge, or, well, the _TARDIS_, and then glanced back to the screen.

'_Doctor Who blue box'_

The first result out of the thousands of listings gave Matilda a shimmer of hope. It was titled under: '_Defending the Earth!_', but as soon as the page loaded up her face fell slightly. Several links were listed down the left hand side and the titles of the links suggested that they were games or something. She didn't click on any of them, instead scrolling down once and noticing the several links which caught her attention.

"_Woah..._" Matilda leaned back in her seat after clicking on the first link. A black and white image of a man with cropped her was centered between bold, capitalised text.

_**DOCTOR WHO?**_

_**HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN? **_

_**CONTACT CLIVE.**_

She winced, shaking her head slightly. Amy cocked an eyebrow, arms folded across her chest. "What? What is it?"

Matilda didn't reply as she scanned over each paragraph of text on each link. The site was supposedly run by a man called 'David. R', but it looked as if it hadn't been updated in years. She read the entire small paragraph that was in tribute to the site's original contributor—Clive. Apparently he'd passed away at some point, although it didn't really say when.

She went back to the search engine and typed in her new search, which was '_Matt Smith_'.

But once again, there were only social networking profiles, an occasional politician.

"Suppose not." She muttered, taking in a deep breath and typing in the address to get access to her emails. She typed in the account email into the first bar, the password into the second and pressed enter.

But there was an error. Her account didn't exist.

She carefully retyped her email and the password, brow furrowing when the same error came up once again.

"Uh...no, something's really not quite right here." She shook her head, throwing the three of them a sort of confused, desperate look. "I can't access my email account?"

"You have an email account?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows, leaning back into the sofa cushions and making himself comfortable.

Matilda gave him a bemused look, and nodded. "Yes? How would people contact me? My colleagues and friends?" He didn't respond to that, inspecting the cuticles of his fingers and ignoring her almost. She continued to give him a withering look and then turned back to the screen. There was obviously an issue with the site.

She then typed in the web address to Facebook and did the same; typing in her email address and password.

The account didn't exist.

Spooked, Matilda grabbed onto the laptop screen and hastily shut the laptop closed, eyes wide and lips pursed. She pressed her palms firmly down onto the top of the laptop, trying to ease the tremors that were building their way up her hands.

"No results for _Doctor Who_. No results for the TARDIS, for Matt Smith. Only one, just one site, and it hasn't been touched in a few years and the information's all old and there is only little of it from what there should be. I can't access my email or Facebook account because it apparently doesn't exist." She swallowed, gaze trained onto the wooden crate in front of them all which was made up as a make-shift coffee table. She glanced up. "So what does that mean then? Do I exist?"

"No." The Doctor instantly replied, a sincere look on his face. "You don't, Matilda. Not here, not in this universe."

"_Doctor!_" Amy snapped, whacking him on the arm. He jolted, twisting his head and pulling an annoyed look.

"Oh, so lying to her is going to help? She wants answers, and I'm not prepared to lie to her this time! Not about this." He paused, pursing his lips and turning his head to face the training detective. She stared at him in bewilderment and he could see that she was trying to piece together what little information she had. He shifted; leaning forwards in his seat on the sofa and resting his forearms on his knees. He looked suddenly at unease, his hands clasped together as he tried to process his words. From what Matilda had observed already from the man, it seemed like he didn't do this too often, as from what she'd witnessed he rambled a lot. "The last thing you remember is being late for work that morning, scrambling out of bed and soon later on climbing into a taxi. Only, of course, as you were in such a rush, you didn't put your seat belt on. You never thought about it, you presumed that nothing on the off-chance would happen."

Matilda sat silently in her seat, staring at him steadily but holding the breath that she'd previously breathed in. He continued, watching as she tried to keep herself composed; to stop herself from trembling and her face void of emotion.

The Doctor continued. "There was a collision with another driver and the long and short of it is: the force of the collision sent you flying. Your head smashed through the glass of the windscreen and that was the moment when you were sent here." He swallowed, an odd, pained look passing across his face, but he automatically went to hide it. "You have been ripped from your universe into ours. You're apart of this world now."

Bitter, frustrated tears stung in her eyes as she pursed her lips, blinking them away furiously and swallowing the lump in her throat.

"And how do you three know me then?" Her voice wavered slightly, but she swallowed the second painful lump and straightened slightly. She refused to cry, refused to panic and start denying everything and have a total meltdown.

"You're part of my time stream. You exist in this world, Matilda, but as another traveller in the TARDIS. We meet in the wrong order, though. I see versions of you all the time, versions of you from the future, some very close to the present version that is sitting in front of us, _you_, and some far, far beyond that."

She felt herself trembling, but the tears were no longer brimming in her eyes, which was a good sign. Or, possibly, not so much. "So, in other words, I've died, and ended up here."

He didn't reply. Nor did Amy or Rory. In fact, Amy had tears in her eyes and refused to look at the detective in training and her partner seemed slightly anguished in anything.

Something very quiet and pained was released from the back of Matilda's throat—a whimper, of sorts, but it was almost inaudible as she choked it back. She cleared her throat, taking the laptop up into her hands and leaning forwards to place it on the make-shift coffee table. She sniffed and snatched up one of the cubes that was stacked in a pyramid on the surface, tapping her finger gently against it as she examined it.

She leaned back into her chair, a small, almost unnoticeable yet forced smile on her face. "OK—bunch of cubes." Her voice cracked slightly, much to her despair, but she continued; her voice growing stronger after each word. "Thought it was some sort of weird fetish at first, but I suppose after those lot came charging in it was a bit more than a desire for dozens of plain, black cubes. One of you care to explain?"

But her question was ignored; simply batted away to one side. The Doctor's gaze had fallen to her right hand and he abruptly cut in before the other two could respond to her. "That ring. Where did you get it?"

Matilda blinked down at the golden band on her right hand that was slipped over her ring finger. She frowned, not really seeing how that had anything to do with what had just been said, but remained silent for a few moments as she inspected it. It was brassy gold in colour and the band was wrapped around her slender finger in a circular, winding way. Situated in the centre of it was an onyx stone, but in-scripted on it appeared to be odd circular shapes and lines.

"What?"

"The ring, where did you get it?" The Doctor repeated patiently, seeming to lean further in his seat as she kept her gaze focused on the ring. She brought her other hand to it as she thought, suddenly at a loss to say as she desperately tried to search her hand for the answers. She smoothed her left index finger over the band and onyx stone before going to twist it, but to her surprise, discovered that it wasn't able to be twisted. She grasped onto the band after a few seconds and tried to twist the ring with all her might, but was still unable to do so.

"_Matilda._"

"I don't know!" She quipped, snapping her head to face him. "I've just always had it. A relative must've given it to me at one point."

The Doctor shook his head slightly. "Must've? Surely, if a relative gave you some jewellery then you'd definitely remember? Who was it?"

"My grandma. It must have been." She felt flustered underneath his demanding, challenging questions. "Yes, of course. Why? Why does it matter?"

Her finger began to sting and she automatically regretted trying to pull it from her finger. She winced as the stinging grew into a burning sensation that began to spread up from her finger and through into her hand. She winced again and wrapped the fingers from her left hand around the ring and tugged, presuming that she was allergic to the metal all of a sudden. But once again, the ring didn't budge.

"Ah!" She yelped when she removed the left hand that obscured the ring. The stone was no longer onyx—it was glowing a fiery, bright red and the odd circular patterns embedded into the stone were glowing a golden, bright yellow. She sprung up from her seat on the armchair, the burning beginning to gradually spread to other parts of her body by the second.

Two hands pressed against her upper arms, steadying her and holding her in place.

"I'm so sorry, Matilda. You're about to see another version of me, one from either the past or future, perhaps one with an entirely different face," He bowed his head and pressed his lips to her forehead. She felt the panic rising inside of her, tightening around her chest as she struggled to breathe from the shock that had enveloped her. He pulled away, removed his hands from her upper arms and pressed them to her cheeks. Her entire body was burning. "It'll be alright. Don't stop running."

With a sudden flash of light, she was gone.

**SO YEAH, she jumps about his time stream and they never meet in the right order. I didn't want to sound too typical though, because some of my favourite Doctor Who Fanfics have their OC thrown about the Doctor's time stream with the vortex manipulator. I didn't want to base it on the exact same idea because I felt that it'd be sort of ripping off from them, you know? So instead, from after reading an article on the Doctor Who Wikia site, I discovered a slight different route. Admittedly similar, but the background of this ring is different and wasn't made by the Time Agency—the creators of the vortex manipulator. **

**So, it's a ring. That's all I'm saying. Google it! You may find the results. You may not. You probably will.  
**


	3. Gridlock: Part One

With a burst of blinding white light, Matilda lost her footing completely and plummeted to her knees. The pain and sensations she was experiencing were indescribably unpleasant, ranging from nausea, sharp pain in her skull, every muscle in her body aching and in addition to this; it felt as if she'd been kicked in the stomach.

She'd cried out when her knees made impact with the cold concrete ground, wincing from the jolt of pain that shot directly up from her shins. Her vision was hazy but she managed to take note of the fact that she was in an enclosed alley. She groaned, wrapping her arms tightly around her frame in such a way as if she was trying to hold herself all together. Her head bowed down to the ground and her eyes squeezed shut in pain; she didn't see the figure that quickly approached.

Two hands pressed gently against her upper arms and before she'd even managed to glance up at the person, she was already being hastily tugged up onto her feet.

"Mattie, it's alright," A voice soothed above her as she blinked away the tears that had threatened to brim. Tilting her head upwards, she took in the man who held her up, sort of expecting to see the same man with the bow-tie, but instead of seeing green eyes she saw brown.

The man was tall, perhaps the same height as the Doctor. His hair appeared brown and thick and slight freckles were scattered over his cheeks, but it was pretty hard to tell from the lack of light. She tore her gaze from the man who was dressed in this brown pin-striped suit and long, brown over coat and let her eyes wander around her surroundings.

Correction—her new surroundings.

"Oh, _oh!_ _Shit!_" She swore, hazel eyes darting around the bland concrete walls, towards the white, shining light that was planted in the top right hand corner above a metal door; only managing to cast a dim light in the constricted space. A green plaque was embedded onto the concrete beside her, reading '**MOTORWAY ACCESS**'. "But _how?_"

"Mattie? Where have you last been?" The man spoke, catching her attention once again. She twisted her head to face him and blinked up at the stranger, eyebrows drawing together.

"David Tennant?"

The man released his grasp on her arms, his face twisting into a look of bewilderment and she immediately took a step back, rubbing her sore head—the pain merely a dull, throbbing ache that seemed to fade after each minute past.

"_What?_" He demanded, an incredulous look replacing the bewilderment. "No, it's me! The Doctor! Look, I'm sorry, but we haven't got time for this. Martha's been taken by some carjackers onto the motorway and we have to find her before she gets into any more danger." He turned on his heel, closing the distance between him and the green, heavily scratched metal door. He whipped out something from his pocket and positioned it in front of the door handle and seconds later a familiar, whirring, buzzing sound was heard. She stared down at the device in his hands, taking note of how it was no longer glowing green at the end, but blue.

_'__You're about to see another version of me, one from either the past or future, perhaps one with an entirely different face,'_

The door clicked. The man paused before he went to push down on the metal handle, licking his lips and turning his head to take in the younger woman. Her strawberry-blonde hair had been shoved up into a bun and he took note of the fact that she was dressed in slim fitting trousers and a grey suit jacket.

He sighed, removing his hand from the handle to pull at the front of his over coat so he was able to slip the device he held into his breast pocket of his suit. He and raised his hand out for her to take.

"I know that something's wrong and I wish I had the time to take you aside and talk about whatever's happened, but our friend is in trouble and needs our help. So please, come on." He nodded towards his waiting hand. Her gaze flickered between his face and his outstretched hand, pursing her lips for a few seconds before quickly reaching forward and taking it.

The man, or well, the Doctor pulled her closer towards the metal door, giving her a reassuring look and a gentle squeeze of her hand. Then, he clasped onto the door handle, pushed down fully and leaned his weight against the metal door; sending it swinging open. The two stepped forwards onto a small metal balcony, their heads tilting upwards as they took in the scene before them.

Hundreds and hundreds of small floating vehicles were hovering in the air, lined one after the other in rows up above and down below. Matilda stared in awe, unable to count as there were so many. From the large, glowing blue plates at the bottom of each vehicle and from the way they hovered, she was pretty certain that she was a very long, long way from home.

Exhaust fumes swirled around the pair and simultaneously, the two began to cough and choke with each breath they took. Both the Doctor and Matilda covered their mouths, their eyes beginning to water from each choking cough they took. Matilda desperately peered around for any sign or way of getting through the hundreds of hovering vehicles, but before them they were simply stacked high and low; the only exist was behind them.

The doors to the vehicle closest to the metal balcony slid open and out appeared a figure. The man grasped onto the side of the vehicle as he leaned out slightly, a white scarf and goggles covering the majority of his face and a helmet secured on the top of his head.

"_Hey!_" He yelled over the sound of people among the traffic honking their car horns. "You daft little street struts! What are you both doing standing there? Either get out or get in—_come on!_" He beckoned them towards him and his vehicle, waving his hand frantically. Matilda coughed, turning her head to peer up at the Doctor. He continued to choke on the fumes, casting her a brief look before jumping forwards and tugging her along behind him. Both leaped down onto the platform attached slightly below the balcony and one after the other, hand still in hand, they threw themselves over the small gap between the platform and the hovering vehicle and straight through the open doors.

Matilda slams into the Doctor accidentally as she hears the doors slide shut behind them both, and once again, two arms are out to steady her. The Doctor continues to cough, twisting his head away from the younger woman so he wasn't coughing directly down into her face.

"Did you ever see the like?"

She took note of how cramped it was as she tried to cease her hacking coughs. Suddenly, something is thrust into her hands as another voice quickly chimes in, worry and desperation in her tone.

"Here you go! I'm sorry, but there's only one..."

She sways once again, unable to hold still long enough for her to focus on the item she'd been hastily given. Before she was able to blink down at the object it was suddenly snatched out of her hands and pressed firmly against her mouth.

"Both of them, just standing there, breathing it in!" The man scoffs, removing his scarf and goggles from behind Matilda and the Doctor. Her coughs began to gradually cease as she hungrily inhaled the oxygen that is being passed from the tank and through the mask into her mouth. Another cough ripped its way out of the throat of the man beside her, who had his arm wrapped around her smaller frame and his other hand holding firmly onto the oxygen mask that he was pressing against her mouth. Eyes widening in horror, she quickly grasped onto the back of his hand and made him pull the mask away from her mouth and up towards his own. He didn't fight her as she held it in place, letting out a raspy, sore sigh of relief when his coughs began to cease too.

She turned her head slightly as the man behind them both began to tell a story about a woman on another junction who had suffered from a terrible result of standing out in the fumes for too long. She expected to see the flesh of a human face, but she saw the face of a ginger tom cat.

"Oh, you're making it up." The woman with dark her, the one who had thrust the oxygen mask originally into Matilda's hands gave the man/cat/person a sceptical, exasperated look. He ignored Matilda's look of mixed awe and surprise and brushed past her and the Doctor, taking a seat in the chair to the right dark-haired woman.

"A fifty food head! Just think of it. Imagine picking that nose." Matilda noted the Irish accent in his voice, rocking backwards on her heels slightly. The Doctor noticed this out of the corner of his eye and forced the mask away from his face and back down towards the woman at his side. She felt the dizzy spell begin to subside.

The woman huffed slightly, turning fully in her seat away from their new two passengers and folding her arms across her chest. "Oh, stop it. That's disgusting." She pulled a face, ignoring the look that the cat-man gave her.

"What, did you never pick your nose?"

Suddenly she jumped slightly in her seat and unwound her arms from her frame, reaching over to lightly tap the man on his arm. "Bran, we're moving!"

The cat-man/Bran swivelled in his chair and quickly got into pilot-mode. "Right, I'm there, I'm on it." He reached down towards the hand brake and pushed the metal lever down. Matilda felt the vehicle inch forwards quickly; the engine humming loudly beneath her feet. Unfortunately the moment was short-lived and she quickly noticed that they'd once again come to a stop. The pair behind the two travellers had one arm propped up on each chair inside the vehicle; Matilda behind the woman and the Doctor behind the giant Irish cat. Matilda removed the mask from her mouth one last time, handed it to the Doctor and continued to stare ahead and try to see out through the foggy, dirty windscreen.

"Twenty yards, we're having a good day." The Irish cat turned in his seat slightly to throw the dark-haired woman a look and their new passengers one too. He then turned around further and peered up at the Doctor beside her. "And who might you be, sir? Very well-dressed for a hitch-hiker. And you too, missy!" He threw a half grin towards Matilda, who forced a grin of her own. She didn't feel entirely well dressed stood beside the Doctor in his pin-stripe suit but she supposed that her usual work wear did appear quite smart.

The Doctor removed the mask from his mouth, gasping for breath once more before speaking. "Thanks, sorry, I'm the Doctor." He paused for a second, for another gasp of air—this time more composed—and continued. "And this is Matilda."

"Hi." Matilda greeted breathlessly, raising her free hand and waved at the two tiredly, wiggling her fingers as she did so before letting her arm rest on the back of the woman's chair.

"Medical man! My name's Thomas Kincade Brannigan, and this is the bane of my life, the lovely Valerie." He gestured towards the woman, Valerie, who smiled sweetly at the pair and greeted them softly. Both the Doctor and Matilda smiled back at her gentle face, as Brannigan continued to speak. "And that's the rest of the family behind the pair of you."

Both turned, eyes scanning over the constricted space at the back of the car for the rest of this supposed family. The Doctor outstretched his hand and pulled back the curtain that was drawn across a section of the back of the vehicle. Matilda didn't inch forwards with the Doctor as he bent slightly over something at the back of the car and instead waited behind Valerie and watched.

She heard soft little mewls.

"Ah, that's nice!" He stated in a soft tone. "Hello..." He bent further slightly, and Matilda couldn't help but turn and give the woman in front of her a grin. Valerie was staring at the scene behind them with a look of adoration on her face, her shoulders rising slightly as she turned to give Brannigan a loving look. Matilda turned as the Doctor turned on his heel with a black little kitten in his hands, small patches of brown on its fur and white on its paws.

Matilda batted away the questions that were wandering through her mind, ignoring her thoughts suggesting that the woman had actually had these kittens herself and reached her hand forward to stroke the little thing with her index finger. "How old are they?" She breathed, a grin on her face that she simply couldn't remove.

"Just two months..." Valerie replied, smoothing her own finger across the kitten's tiny head.

"Poor little souls, they've never known the ground beneath their paws!" Matilda and the Doctor turned their attention to Brannigan, initially confused by where he was going with this. "Children of the motorway!"

"What, they were born in here?"

The pair in front of them nodded, and the two new passengers shared a confused look with one another. Matilda removed her hand from the kitten's soft head and gave the couple a concerned look, not properly fathoming how they'd been unable to get to a hospital or manage to pull aside somewhere.

She pursed her lips, eyebrows drawn together as she calculated how long they could have been in here for. "Couldn't you have stopped somewhere along the way?"

"No," Valerie shook her head. "We couldn't have. We heard there were jobs going, out in the laundries on Fire Island. Thought we'd take a chance."

Matilda couldn't quite grasp the idea of that. Surely, if she'd have been about to have...well, _kittens_, she would've waited until _after_ she'd had them? Perhaps she was missing something here but the situation before her didn't seem entirely right and she wasn't able to make the full connections yet. It just didn't really make sense, and the Doctor didn't seem to think so either.

"So you've been driving for two months?" He demanded, drawing his attention from the kitten in his arms and staring at the two incredulously.

Brannigan scoffed. "Do I look like a teenager? We've been driving for twelve years now!" Their eyes widened at this statement.

"I'm sorry?"

"Yeah! Started out as newly-weds...feels like yesterday." He gave his wife a loving look.

She pulled a slight face. "Feels like twelve years to me."

Brannigan leaned over and jabbed his fingers into her sides, making her laugh as he said, "Ah, sweetheart, but you still love me!"

Matilda didn't see why they didn't seem at all bothered by the idea of being confined to this car for such a long period of time and why they were still _there_. If it'd been her then she wouldn't have lasted even a year—it'd drive her bonkers.

"And you've been in here all this time? But _why? _Why have you been travelling in this thing for so _long?_" She inquired, face twisted into a look of confusion.

"Twelve years? How far did you come? Where did you start?"

Brannigan looked at the pair as if they both had two heads on their shoulders, not really understanding what the problem was. "Battery park, it's five miles back."

"You've travelled five_ miles_ in twelve_ years?_" The Doctor demanded as he turned to Matilda, thrusting the kitten towards her chest and carefully placing it into her awkwardly waiting arms.

"I think he's a bit slow," Brannigan gave an amused look towards his wife, still not seeing what the big deal was.

Matilda shook her head and breathlessly laughed slightly. "And I think you're both a bit _mad_. Twelve years cooped up in this thing, but yet you've only gone a short distance that you could've walked within a _day?_ Don't you see what the problem is? You're both still quite young, couldn't you have realised about, well, I don't know, _ten years ago _that travelling at 0.2 miles per hour a day was going to take a while?"

They both appeared a bit stunned by her outburst, Brannigan shifting uncomfortably in his seat and Valerie giving her a slight look of hurt.

"Where are you both from exactly?" She'd managed to gather that whatever this situation was, the Doctor and Matilda were definitely not used to it. The Doctor shook his head, interrupting before Matilda could reply.

"Never mind that, we've got to get out. Our friend's in one of these cars, she's been taken hostage." He turned to Matilda. "Come on, we should get back to the TARDIS." He turned again and grasped onto the car door, yanking the sliding doors open. He leant out and immediately began to cough, desperately peering out through the exhaust fumes and stacks of traffic in front, above and below them. They'd passed the balcony now.

"You're too late for that! We've passed the lay-by..." Brannigan called to the man as he reluctantly slid the doors closed. Matilda watched with worry, kitten still fidgeting in her grasp and pressed to her chest as the cat-man continued. "You're both passengers now, Sonny Jim. You and your lady will need to sit tight."

The Doctor look frustrated as he stood between the two chairs, glaring out through the fog-stained windscreen. "When's the next lay-by?" He snapped.

"Ooooh..." Brannigan began, eyes rolling to his right and then back to the Doctor. "Six months?"

Matilda stiffened, her own eyes widening in horror at this revelation. The Doctor turned his head away, staring out into the stacks of traffic once again. With the shake of her head, she covered the kitten's little ears, ignoring it's mewls of protest.

Everything hadn't been properly explained yet, she'd been dropped into the company of another Doctor, they were chasing after a friend who Matilda hadn't even met yet and she wasn't entirely she if she herself was even _alive_ anymore. But six months confined in a car with essentially four strangers?

"I don't bloody think so." She growled under her breath, ignoring the appalled look she received from Valerie and turning on her heel to place the kitten back into its basket where it's brothers and sisters clambered about.

* * *

The Doctor had hacked into the communications system at the rear of the car, using his buzzing device that Matilda was yet to ask about to try to get hold of the police; who put him straight on hold. Brannigan got into contact with two elderly sisters—or, well, a married couple—and the Doctor had spoken to them for the past ten minutes, trying to get as much information out of them as possible. One of the women happened to be a car-spotter and had limited information on the car that had Martha held hostage inside.

But unfortunately because they were in the fast lane, they weren't able to get into contact with car _four six five diamond six_, which was supposedly a different class all together. When asked to take them down to the fast lane, as Brannigan and Valerie had now four passengers in their vehicle, the dark-haired woman had flat-out refused and wouldn't talk about the matter any further.

Apparently there was something down there that would threaten the safety of her children.

"So we keep on driving?" The Doctor demanded, fury blazing in his eyes.

"Yes, we do." Brannigan replied quietly.

"_For how long?_" The Doctor snapped, throwing one arm into the air and gesturing towards the windscreen. Matilda wrapped her arms around herself, biting the inside of her cheek as she watched him grow more angry by the minute.

"Till the journey's end."

But that wasn't a good enough answer, not for the Doctor. Seething, he leant forward and swiped up the radio handset from its cradle. "Mrs. Cassini, this is the Doctor. Tell me, how long have you been driving on the motorway?"

One of the elderly woman on the other line replied almost instantly. "Oh, we were among the first. It's been twenty-three years now.

"But in all that time, have you ever seen a police car?" He was met with stunned silence. Brannigan and his wife turned their heads to throw one another speechless looks, their eyes widening slightly.

The other Mrs. Cassini spluttered, "I'm not...sure."

"Look at your notes," The Doctor raised his eyebrows, staring directly down at Brannigan. "Any police?"

"Uh—not as such."

The Doctor continued what he was doing, his tone contradicting. "Or an ambulance? Rescue service? Anything official. _Ever._" Matilda could hear how flustered the woman sounded on the other line, brushing aside his demanding questions as the Doctor continued, his tone darkening as each word tumbled from his mouth. She licked her lips and reached towards his arm, gently tapping it.

"Doctor..." She murmured softly in warning, not liking the way the situation was escalating.

He ignored her. "What if there's no one out there?"

That was enough for Brannigan. "Stop it!" He had reached up and snatched the radio handset from the man. "The Cassini's were doing you a favour." He turned and slammed the headset back into its cradle.

"Someone's got to ask," The Doctor leaned closer towards the cat-man. "because you might not want to talk about it, but it's there, in your eyes. What if the traffic jam never stops?"

Brannigan shook his head in disbelief, eyes fixed on the Doctor's. "There's a whole city above us, the mighty city-state of New New York!" Matilda frowned at this. "They wouldn't just leave us."

"In that case, where are they, hmm?"

Matilda swallowed, patting the Doctor's arm again and trying to get his attention. "Doctor."

Once again, he ignored her. "What if no help coming, not ever? What if there's nothing? Just the motorway, with the cars going round and round and round and round, never stopping. _Forever!_"

"Shut up!" Valerie snapped, managing to snatch the Doctor out of his challenging, dark stare with her husband. "Just shut up!"

Matilda stepped away from the Doctor as a blonde, American accented woman appeared on the display monitor, wrapping her arms around herself once again.

"This is Sally Calypso, and it's that time again. The sun is blazing high in the sky over the New Atlantic, the perfect setting for the daily contemplation." Matilda leant back against the metal wall of the car, her eyes transfixed on the screen as Brannigan shook his head, gazing down into his lap.

"You think you know us so well, Doctor," He tilted his head up to gaze at the Time Lord. "But we're not abandoned. Not while we have each other."

Sally continued to speak over the static, a sincere look on her face. "This is for all of you out there on the roads. We're so sorry. Drive safe." And as soon as she finished her sentence, the sound of a choir singing was heard over the static of the monitor and immediately, both Valerie and Brannigan sang the words to the hymn.

_On a hill, far away, stood an old, rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. _

Matilda tore her eyes away from the static screen and gazed forwards; eyes transfixed on the metal wall of the car opposite her, silently listening to the couple as they sang softly, staring forwards out into the traffic. From where she was pressed against the door she was unable to hear the sound of car horns from nearby or from the distance.

All she heard was singing.

_And I love that old cross, where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down._

She didn't join in with them, she didn't bother to open her mouth to sing the words or attempt to even hum along with the gentle, slow tune. And neither did the Doctor.

_ I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown._

The Doctor noticed at that point that Matilda had stopped trying to get his attention several minutes ago. He blinked, pivoting slightly and fixing his gaze upon the woman who stood there, leant against the vehicle doors with tears in her eyes and a ghost of a smile playing on her lips. He simply stared at her, noting the lost look in her eyes and the way she stared straight ahead, silently blinking through the tears.

He couldn't help but wonder, as he usually did of course, where she had just been.

**Chapter three: PART 1 OF GRIDLOCK! **

**I'll update as soon as I can. I may even work out an update schedule/use specific day that acts as a deadline for upcoming chapters in the future. I'm not sure if I will or not though, I'm pretty unreliable and I seem to rebel against sticking to deadlines and schedules. **

**Thanks to those who have favourited, followed and reviewed, I'm glad you're interested or enjoying it so far! **


	4. Gridlock: Part Two

"If you won't take me, I'll go down on my own." He turned on his heel and stalked the short distance between the front of the vehicle to the rear, shoving past the curtain and the dangling mobile above the kittens. Matilda tore her gaze away from the wall opposite her and blinked at the Doctor as he stooped down into a crouch, whipping the device from the breast pocket of his suit.

"What do you think you're doing?" Brannigan demanded, twisting round in his seat to watch the Time Lord as he pressed the device and trailed the buzzing object around the outline of the door.

"Finding my own way, I usually do." The Doctor snipped in response and then the sound of a _click _was heard belonging to the trap door beneath the device. The Doctor grasped onto the handle of the door and pulled it open, managing to avoid Matilda's feet as she stepped away from the opening door.

The computer interface followed with, "_Capsule open._"

Both peered down into the traffic below them; watching as the line of traffic beneath Brannigan and Valerie's car inched forwards, leaving a gap underneath their vehicle for a second before one stops in the designated spot.

"Here we go." He springs up from his crouched spot suddenly, pops his device into his breast pocket and tears of his coat before throwing it towards Valerie, who awkwardly catches it in her seat. "Look after this!" Matilda unfolded her arms and straightened as he crouched once again, peering up and eyeing the coat for a moment. "I love that coat. Janis Joplin gave me that coat." He peered down into the waiting traffic below.

Valerie sprung up in her seat slightly, grasping onto his coat and the back of her chair. "But you can't jump!"

"If it's any consolation, Valerie," He glanced up at her for a fraction of a second and then back down again. "I'm having kittens." He then twisted his head to gaze at the strawberry blonde who crouched down beside him. Swallowing, he places his free hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back. "You have to stay here."

Matilda gave him a look of surprise and opened her mouth. "What? You're just going to leave me here?" She demanded.

"It's not safe." He stated, eyeing her with worry and watching as her hazel eyes shifted into an irritated glare. She shrugged his hand from her shoulder, a frown on her lips.

"Well, of course not, but I wouldn't be putting myself in any more danger than you will be?"

The Doctor sighed, raising his hand in warning. "No, look, just stay here, alright? It'll be quicker if I just go down by myself—"

She interrupted him. "Quicker? Or do you ideally mean _not in the way?_"

"I'm not arguing about this with you, now please; just do as I've asked!" He snapped, growing more frustrated and impatient with the situation at hand. He saw her face twist with hurt and quickly averted his gaze to Brannigan who decided to intervene.

"This Martha...she must mean an awful lot to you both."

"Hardly know her." The Doctor replied, calming a little as he peered down at the vehicles below. "I was too busy showing off. And I lied to her." Matilda's look of hurt had melted into one of curiosity, watching quietly as he stared blankly down into the fumes. "Couldn't help it, just did."

Who was Martha exactly?

"Well, bye then!" The Doctor snapped his head up, throwing a glance at the couple and then a lingering look at Matilda. "I'll come back for you, I promise, but just stay." And with that, he swung himself down through the hatch and dangled over the cars below. Matilda watched with wide eyes as he threw a one last look to the interior of the car and then released his hold on the sides of the trap door. He only dropped a short distance, landing on the roof of the vehicle underneath with a loud _thud_. Matilda leaned over the open trap door, watching closely as the man squinted through the fumes into the traffic before waving his buzzing device over the door of the roof hatch on the car below.

Brannigan joined her and crouched opposite from where she was, a look of wonder and slight excitement on his face.

Valerie peered over the back of her chair, shaking her head. "He's completely insane!"

"That, and a bit magnificent!"

Matilda couldn't remove the frown from her lips as she watched him cough from the fumes, successfully managing to unlock the hatch and pull the door open. He then disappeared down through the square hole into the interior of the car.

Brannigan saw the peeved look on her face, inclining his head slightly and feeling concerned for the young woman before him. "He'll stick to his promise, miss. Just you wait, he'll be back in no time!" He made an attempt to assure her. She continued to glare down at the vehicle beneath them, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she remained silent from her deep thoughts.

That wasn't a big drop at all.

"No he won't." She muttered after half a minute, pursing her lips before twisting her legs out from beneath her and dangling them through the open trapdoor. Brannigan's eyes widened and he immediately went to stop her, but she gave him a reassuring look of her own. "Sorry, but this is only the second time I've ever met this man, or, well, look...anyway, he acts as if he knows who I am and has even claimed that he does. But here, Bran, if he _really _knew me, then he would know that for starters that jumping down onto the roofs of a couple of cars is nothing compared to what I've experienced before and _also_, I'm not going to just willingly be shoved off to the sidelines and sit tight here." She paused, holding onto either sides of the trap door before shooting Valerie and the cat-man a pleasant smile. "In other words, it was a pleasure to meet you both, but apparently I have a friend that I'm yet to meet who is in trouble and I'm going to help in whatever way I can to try to get her back. Bye!" She grinned, pushing herself forwards and slipping down through the trap door.

She dangled for mere seconds before releasing her grasp on each side of the trap door and dropping down onto the roof of the car below that the Doctor had disappeared inside of. Luckily the roof hatch was still open. She inched forward across the roof, trying to avoid inhaling the fumes and swung herself down through the open door.

She dropped into a crouch inside of the white interior of the vehicle, pleasantly surprised by the vast change for her eyes to adjust to compared to the foggy, grim atmosphere outside of the car. She snapped her head up and was met with the astonished look of awe the driver gave her. Like the inside of his car, his skin was paper white and was dressed in a suit of similar colour.

"Hi!" She breathed, peering down into the already open trap door which she had managed to avoid jumping down through. "A friend of mine just came through here. Take it he's popped down to the vehicle below?"

The man nodded and spluttered in response, "Are you his partner for the Motorway Foot Patrol?"

Matilda chewed on the inside of her cheek as she dropped down onto her knees and positioned her legs so they were dangling through the trap door, peering down at the car below her. She flashed the man a look with the shake of her head. "You could say that, but he had to be daft and rush on down ahead. Tell you what," She paused, grimacing at the man through her lie. "The boss won't be impressed. Cheers!" And then, she disappeared through the open hatch.

* * *

She wasn't sure how many cars she'd dropped into, she'd lost count after around the sixth one. Each driver and their passenger whether they had one had given her a range of looks from horror, confusion and some sort of dismissal—simply gesturing towards the trap door left open from their earlier invader. Matilda was pretty quick and had managed to climb down each layer of the slow lane, luckily managing to jump onto the same car each time that the Doctor had previously swung through. She'd realised that on the unlucky off-chance, the traffic on each layer could inch forward and she could easily jump onto the roof of an unopened car and have no way of accessing it but decided that she would just have to be swift and come to that bridge _if _and _when _she had to cross it.

Unfortunately the further she climbed down each layer, the more exhausted she became. She needed to keep up her pace so she could end up in the same vehicle as the Doctor and it didn't help that she was fighting a losing battle with the exhaust fumes around her. It got to the point as she went on that she wasn't able to greet the people in the cars that she swung down into; only choking coughs and waving tiredly at each stranger before disappearing.

Eventually, she jumped down onto car which appeared to be in the queue of the last layer of the slow lane—the fog covering the vast, almost barren looking fast lane below. She hacked two coughs, steadying herself dizzily before clambering inches towards the open hatch and swinging her legs down into the vehicle.

Her knees buckled when she hit the floor of the car, breathlessly landing in a crumpled heap on her shins.

* * *

Brannigan and Valerie were sitting at the front of their car in their seats, absent-mindedly staring ahead through the dirty windscreen of the car and out into the fog and traffic ahead. But suddenly, the sound of a drill-like piece of equipment could be heard; cutting into the metal roof of the married couple's vehicle. Both stiffened in their seats, twisting their heads around and staring up at their roof with horror.

"Just what we need, _pirates!_" He snapped, throwing his wife a look of utter frustration.

Valerie ignored him, staring up at the roof where sparks rained down into their car. "I'm calling the police!" She cried over the sound of the saw slicing into the metal.

At that precise moment, the entire roof hatch fell through the car and crashed to the floor with a bang that shook the entire vehicle. The couple watched, eyes bulging out of their heads as a woman with the face of a cat hung down from the roof of the car upside down, facing the pair and aiming her gun at the two.

"The Doctor and Matilda Falconer, _where are they?_" She snarled.

* * *

"I told you to wait _there!_" The Doctor seethed, running his hand through his tousled brown hair out of stress from the situation. Matilda gulped down her third tiny plastic cone of water that she'd been given, leaning against the wall of the car, throwing the Time Lord a weak glare. She removed the empty plastic cup from her lips and sighed; her throat still feeling raw from her coughs and her chest sounding fairly wheezy.

She tilted her head and peered at the man with the bowler hat and pinstripe suit, flashing him a lopsided grin. "Hi, I'm Matilda. Sorry to just drop in on you, but apparently a friend who I haven't even _met _yet is in trouble and I couldn't just sit about and wait all the way up there." She threw a withering look towards the ceiling. The Doctor opened his mouth, probably to lecture her further, but she cut him off before he could do so. "Hey, just _shut up_, alright? I'm doing you a favour being here, just think about it. You need three passengers to go down into the fast lane, and there was a fifty percent chance that you'd of climbed into a car with one driver, which you _have_."

He closed his mouth, his eyes widening a fraction at her point. Of course, she was right and he knew that he should be getting off her case, but what she'd just said threw him off slightly.

"You haven't met Martha yet?"

She shook her head. "This is my second time meeting you. You have a different face, which you know,_ isn't confusing at all_." His eyes widened further as she tore her eyes away from the man and towards the open hatch beside them. She'd been distracted by the roaring, growling noises from below them in the distance. She leaned down and peered through the shifting fog, her eyebrows raising. "Hey...what are those things?" She could see black claw-like shapes snapping out through the fumes. She crouched and the two men crouched down with her, staring down at the living creatures that snarled below.

"They're Macra. They used to be the scourge of this galaxy." He lifted his head to give Matilda and the other man brief looks before gazing back down on the Macra. "Gas. They fed off gas, the filthier the better. They built up a small empire using humans as slaves and mining gas for food.

Bowler-hat man replied, "They don't exactly look like empire builders to me."

"No, more like giant, grouchy crabs." Matilda muttered, squinting through the fog at the snapping claws.

"Well, that was billions of years ago. Billions. They must have devolved down the years and you're right, Mattie, they do." He didn't tear his gaze from the creatures below, not seeing the slight look of surprise. That was only the second time that he'd called her that. "Now they're just beasts. But they're still hungry and our friend's down there."

A very loud clang was heard above the trio and each of their heads snapped up towards the roof of the man's car, who wasn't impressed at all with the idea of another visitor in his car. "Oh, it's like New Times Square in here, for goodness sake!" The man, Matilda and the Doctor stood simultaneously, eyes transfixed on the figure who swung down the open hatch and landed fairly gracefully on her feet compared to how Matilda had plummeted before.

The Doctor stepped over the trapdoor towards the intruder. "I've invented a sport!"

Matilda scoffed as the figure came eye to eye with the man. "Can't say it's one that everyone will entirely enjoy participating in." She quipped, eyes warily trailing up and down the intruder smiled breathlessly at the man. Another cat-person. She turned and gave Matilda a smile too, much to her confusion.

"Doctor, Miss. Falconer, you are two very difficult people to find!" Matilda frowned, noting how yet another person knew who she was but she wasn't able to recognise them herself.

Bowler-hat man had a prickly look on his face as he pointed down to the weapon in the cat-woman's hand. "No guns, I'm not having guns."

The woman turned, clearly tired from her desperate journey down the motorway to chase down the pair. "I only brought this in case of pirates. Doctor," She turned away from the driver. "you and Matilda need to come with me now."

To which he squinted slightly at the woman, a look of puzzlement appearing on his face. "Do I know you?" She laughed breathlessly at this.

"You haven't aged at all! Although, Miss. Falconer, you appear younger, if not so." She smiled to herself slightly, her eyes flickering down to her own frame. "Time has been less kind to me..."

Suddenly, a startled yet bright look of recognition passed over the Time Lord's features and he planted his hands onto the woman's shoulders. "Novice Hame!" She pulled the cat-woman into a hug, before suddenly tensing and pushing her back. "No, hold on, get off. Last time we met, you were breeding humans for experimentation."

Both Matilda and the bowler-hat guy raised their eyebrows as Novice Hame quickly replied, her tone raising in desperation and haste.

"I've sought forgiveness, Doctor, for so many years, under his guidance. And if you and Miss. Falconer come with me, I might finally be able to redeem myself!"

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere. You've got Macra living underneath this city. Macra! And if our friend's still alive, she's stuck down there!" He snapped, pointing down towards the fast lane beneath them.

"You've got to come with me _right now!_"

"No, no, no, you're coming with me. We had three passengers before, but you might as well join us for the journey down, see what's really going on down there!"

"I'm sorry, Doctor, but this situation is even worse than you can imagine." She reaches down and takes hold of the Time Lord's wrist before throwing Matilda a look of sadness. "He requested for _both _of you, but I am running out of time. He will be deeply upset and I will continue to always regret that I did not get you to him before it was too late, Miss. Falconer." She murmured much more sincerely and calmly compared to her brief argument with the Doctor moments before. "Transport."

The Doctor's eyes widened in horror and immediately he began to yell his protests. "Don't you dare, _don't you dare!_"

Novice Hame pressed down on a button on the wrist strap on her arm and the two disappeared with a bright beam of light. Matilda and the man was left standing where they were, their eyes wide and mouths parted open slightly in shock.

"Where did they go?" He spluttered, brown eyes wide. Matilda shook her head, not exactly knowing herself. She simply felt annoyed that she'd been left, _again_, in a stranger's car—which of course, was obviously not intentional this time—but nevertheless she still felt her lips twitch down into a frown.

"I don't know." She muttered, her eyes glazing over as she thought quietly to herself for a moment, her shoulders deflating.

A prickling, burning sensation had begun to spread up her hand from her left ring finger and immediately Matilda blinked down to the ring that was slipped over the finger; the stone that was once previously onyx now again a fiery, glowing red and the odd-circular patterns glowing bright gold. She raised her hand, wincing in pain as she inspected the ring. The business man stumbled away from her, his eyes bulging out of his head as her entire body began to burn.

"What the _hell _is happening?" He demanded, his dark eyes flickering from the jewellery on her finger to the pained expression on her face. An overwhelmingly bright, flash of electric light flashed before his eyes and Matilda Falconer was gone.

**PART 2 OF GRIDLOCK!**

**Unfortunately, Matilda doesn't get to see the Face of Boe in his final moments. I felt that continuing to write her in that scene in this chapter would have made her out of place of even in the way perhaps. This also means that she doesn't get to meet Martha Jones yet. *sighs***

**She will do soon, though. Just wait. **

**Thank you to the more people who have followed, favourited and reviewed! Your interest and comments drive me to want to update as quick as I possibly can, so thank you for those who have taken the time to read my story so far! :D**

**I'm not sure what episode I'll do next. You'll just have to wait till next time, aheh ;) **


	5. The Time of Angels: Part 1

In the past, someone had told Matilda that often the second time you do something, the easier or less painful it becomes. She couldn't say the same about the burning pain which seemed to explode in a blinding flash of white light and entirely engulf her. Luckily this time, she managed to land on her own two feet and not collapse to the ground, although she did stumble a bit.

She groaned in agony, wrapping an arm around her gut and wincing as she eyed her surroundings. The young woman was no longer in the confined space of the businessman's car, but she was definitely inside of a room somewhere. The walls were metal; a brown, dirty sort of metal and the ceiling was rather low. The room was small if anything too and seemed to be packed with equipment, supplies and bits of technology. It was as if she'd landed in some sort of evacuation pod.

Evacuation pod?

Well, she wasn't too sure.

"Mattie?"

Matilda blinked up and let out a sigh of relief; a small, unsure grin stretching up on her face at the sight of the red-head Scot who had appeared in the doorway. "Amy, hello!" She straightened, wincing once again and a bit breathless from her sort of jump from the last place she was. "Good to see a familiar-ish face."

There was something odd about the ginger girl in front of her, something that Matilda couldn't quite place her finger on. She was dressed in a skirt, a short black skirt that nicely exposed her slender, long legs and she wore a baggy, red hooded-sweatshirt. She wasn't wearing as much makeup compared to the last time she saw her and her hair was pushed off of her face with a headband.

Unless Matilda was mistaken...Amy looked younger this time.

Amy smiled at the strawberry-blonde, a nervous, sheepish little grin. "Ha! Yeah...so, um, which one is this then? How many times have you jumped?" She asked, pulling her full attention away from something else in the pod that she'd been staring towards.

"This is my second jump, I think, if you don't count the one where I appear in your kitchen." She noted the confused look on the red-head's face. "And this is my second time meeting you. Where's Rory?" This time, Amy visibly tensed. Her green eyes stared at the other woman with an intense, spooked look as she fumbled with her words.

"R-Rory?" She stammered. "If this is only your second time meeting me, then how do you know who Rory is?" She demanded, eyeing the blonde sharply. Matilda raised her hands in the air slightly in defence, eyebrows raised.

"Alright, punchy! Calm down, OK?" She gave the woman a tight smile. "It was obviously you from another time, maybe. The future, perhaps. Whatever, it doesn't matter..." She trailed off, a bit annoyed that already she seemed to be upsetting people somehow. With a sigh, she turned her head to glance over the small room they were standing in; her eyes darting around from each section of the pod, briefly towards the open door and towards a static image of a figure on a screen at the other end of the enclosed space.

Amy followed her gaze and immediately the tense, sharp look was replaced by one of bewilderment. She narrowed her eyes and her mouth hung open partially as she turned away from the blonde and began to approach the screen. Matilda frowned at the red-head but didn't follow—she was more concerned about where she had appeared next.

"Hey, where are we?" She asked the ginger over her shoulder as she closed the short distance between where she stood and the open door. She turned her head away from Amy and leaned out of the module, one hand grasping onto the door and the other on the metal frame of the doorway. Amy didn't reply.

A bunch of camps were set up around the area and she could see soldiers dressed in camouflaged uniform scattered around. The skies were dark and a slight breeze picked up a strand of fallen hair from her lose bun—now barely holding much of her hair securely anymore. She scowled, raising her hands to her hair and tightening the hair band more tightly around the hair that was thrown together at the top of her head before her eyes landed on a figure several metres away.

The Doctor had his back turned to her, standing beside a woman dressed in the camouflaged uniform that many of the others wore around her. He was wearing his tweed jacket once again, not a pinstripe suit, and his hair looked slightly darker and if not longer from behind. She opened her mouth to call his name, but stopped herself before she could do so, closing her mouth shut quickly.

She didn't want to speak to him, not just yet.

A loud gasp to the right of her caught Matilda's attention. She twisted her head towards the ginger, eyebrows raised at Amy's bent form. She fully turned herself towards the red-head and took a step towards her, inclining her head as she spoke. "What is it?"

Amy was staring at the static screen; her eyes transfixed on the figure that stood in the centre of the image. As she took another step towards Amy's turned back, she studied the figure from afar, eyes narrowing on the form that stood unmoving, staring out of the screen. The static image was entirely grey and the figure didn't exactly look human. It had a very similar human form, but there were no irises in the eyes and wings protruded from its back behind. Like an angel.

A loud bang erupts from behind the two women on their left and although Amy didn't seem to hear it, Matilda did. She spun towards the source of the abrupt noise and discovered that the metal door was now shut closed. Frowning, she threw one bemused look towards Amy before striding back to the door and clasping onto the octagon shaped metal wheel that acted as a handle for the exit. She pushed her weight against the metal as she tried to twist the wheel back and forth, but it remained stiff in its place; unmoving and entirely unable to budge.

She turns back to the red-head and watches as Amy, now with a remote in her hand, attempts to switch the screen off. But each time the image appears again and the angel still stands in its place—staring directly out of the image.

"Amy," Matilda steps away from the door and approaches the woman slowly, eyeing the angel with curiosity. "What is that?" She asked the Scot as something twisted unsettling twisted inside of her gut.

Amy didn't remove her eyes from the screen, but this time spoke. "It's a recording of this statue...there's only four seconds of it," She placed the remote over towards the side where she'd found it. Matilda glanced down to the time stamp at the bottom right hand corner of the screen, watching as the numbers changed constantly on a continuous loop.

_00:11:24:23. _

_00:11:25:12. _

_00:11:26:19. _

_00:11:27:10. _

_00:11:28:04._

"But, I swear...it just keeps on moving..." Amy drawled quietly, coming closer to the screen and stooping down to grasp onto something below the screen. Matilda's eyes widened as she watched the woman try to pull the thick lead from the monitor, not keeping her eyes trained on the screen.

The uneasy feeling had expanded and sent a chill down her neck for a reason unknown to the young woman. She shook her head, stepping forwards and reaching out to the girl.

"Amy, get away from the screen." She commanded, stepping closer and closer towards the woman's crouched form. Amy frowned, standing up slightly and eyeing the lead to the monitor with a small pout, eyes not on the image either. Her green eyes then flickered up the screen and a loud, terrified gasp ripped its way from the back of her throat. Matilda glanced up at the image too at this point and saw the form of the angel now closer to the screen with only a view of its shoulders, the top of its wings and head in the shot. Amy stumbled back and slammed into Matilda's open arms, jolting slightly before clinging onto the strawberry-blonde, shaking head in slight denial. She went to inch forwards again towards the static image, but Matilda held onto the red-head and kept her away.

"We need to get out of here, right now." Matilda muttered lowly, starting to pull Amy further away from the screen and towards the rear of the module. Both woman backed away, eyeing the angel with looks of worry and a bit of fright before turning their backs on the image.

Amy called out, "Doctor!", before clasping her hands around the wheel on the door, but once again it would not budge. Matilda stood beside her, bashing her palm against the metal in attempt to get attention from the others outside. Amy frowned down at the locked door before allowing her eyes to trail up from the unmoving wheel to the screen. She gasped again.

When Matilda looked at the screen she saw that the angel hadn't exactly moved, but the calm, almost gentle look that was once on its face before had been replaced with a twisted look of evil—its teeth bared and sharp teeth showing. Amy pressed herself further back against Matilda's frozen frame, once again calling for the Doctor, this time more weakly and with fright wavering in her tone. Matilda removed one arm from Amy's quivering frame and banged again against the metal door, her face twisting with anger at the predicament that she'd landed herself in. Amy yelled for the Doctor again, and this time, Matilda fully let go of the red-head and whirled herself around the other woman towards the keypad and angrily began to stab at the digits, kicking at the door as she did so.

When both woman turned their heads towards the screen again, they were both horrified to find that the angel was no longer seemingly trapped behind the screen, but was now standing inside of the pod as a static image; its full form in view and its hands raised in the air as if it was ready to claw at the pair.

"_Doctor!_" She shouted, banging against the door one last time before letting Amy take over from her with stabbing random digits into the keypad.

"It's in the room!" Amy cried desperately against the door to the man on the other side. From the distance and despite both of their states of panic, they heard from the distance outside somewhere the voice of the man they were calling out for.

"Amy!" Seconds later he shouted to the red-head again, this time directly outside of the door. "Are you all right? What's happening?"

"Doctor, it's coming out of the television..." She whimpered, eyes fixed on the static hologram of the angel. "The Angel is here."

"Don't take your eyes off of it! Keep looking! It can't move if you're looking!" The sound of his device could be heard outside of the pod, buzzing against something for merely seconds before she stopped.

A new voice appeared, a voice belonging to a woman. "What's wrong?"

"It's deadlocked." They heard him quickly reply.

"There is no deadlock." The woman smoothly retorted.

The Doctor ignored her. "Don't blink, Amy, don't even blink!"

"Doctor." Matilda called as calmly as she could, trying to keep as calm for both her and Amy's sake. "Doctor, hurry up and get us out."

From outside of the module, she heard the Doctor once again, but this time he sounded much, much more terrified. "Mattie? Mattie! What are you doing in there? How?" He bellowed, his tone becoming more horrified and angrier after each word fell from his lips.

She swallowed, pressing herself against the door. "Just calm down and concentrate, but please...just be as quick as you can." Something slammed against the outside of the pod, making the two woman jump a bit, along with a furious yell of frustration. Then, for a moment, it was quiet outside of the module, only the sound of someone fiddling with the keypad on the outside.

"What are you doing?" The unknown woman on the outside muttered.

"Uh, cutting the power. It's using the screen, I'm turning the screen..." He rushed, before paused for a second. "Off! No good, it's deadlocked the whole system."

This seemed to irritate the woman, and once again, she repeated, "There's _no _deadlock!"

"There _is _now!"

"Help us!" Amy cried desperately, eyes fixed upon the angel like Matilda was. The strawberry blonde felt her eyes watering up already; straining them by forcing them to not blink was making them sore and causing her headache from her jump to gradually return. She swallowed, winking one eye after the other several times, trying to keep at least one eye open in case Amy accidentally took her eyes from the static figure at any time.

The Doctor was outside the door now it sounded. "Can you turn it off?"

"Doctor." Amy croaked

"The screen! Can you turn it off?"

Matilda shook her head slightly and took the brief second to take her eyes off of the angel and towards the remote that had been discarded on the work station. She returned her focus back onto the statue. "She's already tried."

"Try again!" He commanded. "But both of you, don't take your eyes off the Angel!"

Matilda, who was closest to the remote, had began to slowly approach the work bench, carefully making several sidesteps in a diagonal right hand side direction with her teeth ground together in concentration.

"Mattie, no!" Amy protested, not realising what the blonde was attempting to do.

Not tearing her gaze from the holographic image, her hand desperately fumbled around for the remote in search of it. "Amy, it's alright—!

"Matilda Falconer what the _hell _are you doing?" The Doctor thundered from outside the door, fear underlining his tone after hearing Amy's worried call to the other woman. Growing quickly irritated with the two, she managed to successfully place her hand over the rectangular device and snatch the remote off of the bench.

"It's fine! I was getting the remote!" She snapped, trying to stay as calm as she could. She edged backwards towards the ginger and blindly stretched her hand behind her in search of the Scot. Amy reached forward and clasped onto Matilda's hand, holding it in an unbearably tight hold as the blonde raised the remote towards the screen behind the static angel. She stabbed her thumb down on the button, cursing when the angel disappeared for barely and second and then reappearing. "It just keeps switching itself back on!"

Amy held out her hand for the remote. "H-Here, let me try!" Matilda complied and handed her the device as the Doctor yelled back to the blonde.

"Yeah, it's the Angel!"

The red-head stabbed down on the off button once again, but the same thing happened as before. "But it's just a recording..."

"No, anything that takes the image of an Angel... is...an... Angel." The Doctor frantically worked outside before pausing once again for a second. "What are you doing?"

As the pair outside briefly bickered, Matilda squeezed Amy's hand.

"Doctor," Amy croaked, her own eyes watering and unmoving from the holographic image. "What's it going to do to me? What will happen to us?" He yelled back to her for both of them to not stop looking at the Angel, but that wasn't enough for the woman. "Just tell me."

Matilda's heart was racing in her chest and her head pounded in agony from the stress of the situation and the effects of her recent jump. She winked each eye after the other, knowing that Amy was doing the same and that soon enough, one or perhaps even both of them would succumb to the desperate need to close their eyes or at least blink once.

"Tell me."

The fright in Amy's voice sent Matilda's shoulders rising in anger. "Doctor, _tell us!_"

"Matilda, Amy, not the eyes!" The Doctor suddenly warned. "Look at the Angel but don't look at the eyes!" Matilda complied to his command, adjusting her gaze to the angel's torso, but she was unable to see whether Amy had done the same. Amy demanded to know why, but the Doctor ignored her question, instead muttering something to the woman outside. Matilda's eyes remained fixed on the static image, but she was able to see through it to the screen behind.

_One. Two. Three. Four._

No picture.

"Amy," Matilda muttered the girl's name, swallowing back the fear that was beginning to rise up her throat. "Amy, _don't take your eyes off of it_, but the screen. There's something about the looped recording. It jumps. One. Two. Three. _Four._"

Amy frowned at this for a moment before what the blonde was saying suddenly hit her. "Doctor, what did you say?"

"Don't look at the eyes!"

Matilda this time called to the man, shaking her head slightly. "No, the other one. About images. And image of an Angel?"

"Whatever holds the image of an Angel, is an Angel." The unknown woman called directly through the door. Amy steadied herself, squeezing Matilda's hand and gaining a reassuring squeeze back before nodding once.

"Okay." She muttered, determination twisting onto the features. She raised the remote. "Hold this. One. Two. Three. _Four!_" And then, she presses the button, and at the exact moment of the blip, the screen manages to freeze; the entire screen covered in lines of static. The holographic statue flickers for a moment before freezing. A loud bang was heart from behind them and the falling of footsteps. The Angel turned completely black, before vanishing.

Amy let her arm fall to her side as she breathed in relief, "I froze it!"

Matilda didn't turn to face the two who had entered the module, instead still grasping onto Amy's hand. The Doctor rushed past the pair towards the screen, ripping out the lead below the television that Amy had managed to not pull out. Quietly, the blonde released her hold on Amy's hand and turned away, shakily striding towards the exit. A blonde woman dressed in camouflage, who she recognised as the one who had spoken to the Doctor with her back turned to Matilda, was stood beside the doorway, staring at the younger woman with worry. The detective in training could tell that she was about to ask if she was alright, perhaps reach out to comfort her but before she could do that, Matilda raised her hand in warning.

She needed to get out.

The woman stepped aside, nodding once and allowing the blonde to leave the module. From behind her, she heard Amy continue to gush breathlessly.

"Mattie noticed that there was a sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an Angel any more..."

Matilda ran her hands over her face as she tried to steady her panicked breathing but seemed to be struggling to do so. She ignored the troops around her who continued what they were doing; some even threw her curious looks in her general direction. She continued to walk away from the module, twisting her head around in search for somewhere to sit down, or perhaps someone she could speak to and get answers. She continued to spin a bit, eyes darting from one place to the other.

Two hands slammed down to each of her upper arms and she gasped out loud as she was steadied in place. Her hazel gaze met the Doctor's and immediately, she was pulled into a bone-crushingly tight hug. She froze for a moment within his hold but this time allowed her arms to stiffly cling around his shoulders, trying to cease the tremors that shook her body. He pulled away and stared down at her, a distressed look on his face.

"Don't _do _that!" He lightly snapped, eyebrows drawn together. He saw the panic on her face despite how much she'd tried to settle it, and his face immediately relaxed. "I'm sorry. It's alright, you're safe now." He soothed.

The blonde laughed lightly, forcing a smile to her face. It turned out more like a grimace. "I know, I'm fine."

"You're shaking like a leaf." He quipped, eyes trailing down her shaking frame. "What time is this? I haven't seen you dressed in this before...?" He tugged at the collar of her suit jacket, smoothing his index finger briefly over the material. His arms were still wrapped loosely around her, now draped around her waist. She felt uncomfortable by the close proximity between the both of them, unsure of what to say as he smoothed the loose strand of her hair away from her eyes.

Why the _hell _was he being so touchy-feely?

She swallowed, allowing her eyes to trail from his green ones. "Second if you don't count where I first appear in Amy's kitchen." His arms became rigid. Her eyes back to his face, she continued. "We were trying to find Martha? I don't know, we were on some sort of motorway. Your face, though, it was different, but you warned me that before I disappeared. This face," She added, nodding to the look of recognition. "this face told me."

He smiled slightly, nodding once, but gave her a weary look. "Yes, I remember. New Earth." Something triggered the memory of the Doctor confronting Brannigan and his wife about whether they had all been abandoned beneath the city.

"New...New York." She tested the words carefully, eyeing his face to check whether she got it wrong. He simply smiled. "Don't see why there are two '_New_'s before 'York' though." She eyed the man carefully. There was a soft look in his eyes, a very similar one to how he'd looked at her when she randomly appeared in Amy and Rory's kitchen, but she couldn't help but compare the man in front of her to the one she could remember in her mind. Not the one on, well, New Earth, but the one with the same face.

This one had a burgundy bow tie instead of a navy one and a burgundy striped dark cream dress shirt. His hair looked a bit floppier too.

He rocked back on his heels, eyes flickering up to the dark sky above them. "Well, there are supposed to be fifteen. New New New New, New New New New New, New New New...New New New York. Fifteenth from the original one that you probably already know, as we were on an entirely different planet."

"We didn't do very much sightseeing."

The Doctor shook his head, eyeing her with the same soft look. "No, no we didn't."

A loud explosion erupted beside them, making the pair jump where they stood and snap their heads in the direction of the dust and rubble that had shot upwards from the ground. She clung onto the Doctor's arms that steadied her in place, her hazel eyes wide and scanning the area for any sign of more explosives.

But apparently, this had been planned.

"Doctor? We're through!" A man in camouflage called to the Time Lord, who grinned slightly in anticipation. As the soldier turned around and ran back towards the site, the Doctor and Matilda turned to each other once again, the woman not looking entirely ready or sure of what was going on. She leaned further away from him, noting how his arms were still draped around her waist casually. Her lips twitched down from her small smile into a frown and he noticed this.

"Sorry," She apologised, placing her hands gently on his forearms; a silent message for him to release her. He complied as she continued. "this is a bit too much for me. Or too early. Third time being here, third time just randomly appearing somewhere. Haven't even found out what this all is yet, you don't seem to have the time to tell me." She paused, her eyes trailing away towards where the soldiers worked around the site where the explosion occurred. "You still don't." He raised his palm and pressed it to her cheek. She blinked, tensing beneath his gentle display of affection and quickly took his hand, carefully removing it from her cheek. She gave him a tight smile and released his hand.

She barely even knew who this man was.

"Right," She let out a shaky, exhale of air. "I may be utterly clueless to everything, but I'm up for a bit of investigating. Might as well put some use to all of that training I've done. Go on, lead the way."

**Chapter five: PART 1 OF _THE TIME OF ANGELS_. **

**This chapter was supposed to be longer and was meant to be posted up last night, but I fell asleep at the laptop and forgot all about it and stumbled off to bed. Ah well, here it is.  
**

**Wasn't sure if the Doctor should be affectionate-ISH in this so early in the story, but the whole grand scheme in my head says it works out. Basically, if you've read any of my other stuff, (aka my ROTG fanfic because that was the only one out of the three that I continued to update), then you'll know that I'm not a massive fan of a romance that just explodes right in your face on the first page, let alone writing about it. This will be a romance between Matilda and the Doctor, but it's not going to rush forwards after a couple of chapters and announce that they're going to get hitched. (Here I am exaggerating but hey, HEY, YOU DO GET SOME FANFIC WRITERS THAT DO THAT!)  
**

**And if that's what they want? Then cool! Spread the love. But if I'm about to disappoint anyone, well, sorry, but no overly-cute bits yet, I'm afraid. Well, a FEW, but if you haven't guessed yet then I'm just going to point out the fact that Matilda won't kick back and go along with it.  
**

**Oh, and River will be introduced to Matilda next. **


	6. The Time of Angels: Part 2

***Unholy screaming* THIS CHAPTER TOOK FAR, FAR TOO LONG!**

* * *

Matilda jumped down from the rope ladder, her torch awkwardly clutched in her hand still from her climb down. Amy and the older woman with curly, blonde ringlets tied into a small pony tail followed suit, Amy straightening herself out a bit and the other woman automatically directing her torch towards a section of the dark shadows several metres away. The soldiers had blasted a way through into the depths of the ancient temple and now they had all climbed down to search for this statue, or as they called it, a Weeping Angel.

"Do we have a gravity globe?" The Doctor wondered out loud, shining his torch briefly across the area in front of him. Unfortunately the large, underground space was almost entirely pitch black; the light from the camp above only managed to illuminate vague outlines of structures. The leader of the group who Matilda managed to catch the name as 'Octavian', asked one of his Clerics for the device that the Time Lord had requested.

Supposedly, according to Amy, they were in the fifty-first century and the leader of the group was a Bishop and he had brought his Clerics along for some sort of mission. The church had moved on apparently.

As the Cleric approached the Doctor with the sphere, Amy took a couple of steps around, flashing her torch around. "Where are we? What is this?"

"It's an Aplan Mortarium, sometimes called a Maze of the Dead." The blonde in camouflage replied, eyes flickering around at the darkness above the group. Matilda hadn't found out her name yet, she didn't seem to have the time to ask. She'd simply followed the Doctor towards the entrance chamber of the underground site and climbed down the ladder after him, taking the torch that had been offered to her by one of the Clerics.

She didn't miss the odd looks she gained from the woman, though.

"What's that?"

The Doctor, who had the gravity globe now in his possession spoke up, shoving his torch into his back pocket. "Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone..." He shifts himself slightly, drops the globe down and swings his right foot towards the falling sphere. He boots it upwards into the air, like a football, and the sphere went soaring high. A spark of glowing light erupts from it on its way up, gradually illuminating the underground area before brightening to it's full potential; casting light and chasing a large part of the darkness away. Everyone craned their heads up to eye their surroundings in wonder, squinting against the harshness of the sudden bright orb that hovered above them all.

There above and around the group were hundreds and hundreds of worn, disintegrated statues. It brought a frown to Matilda's face and automatically her stomach sunk.

"Ha, ha..." The Doctor had an open-mouth, half grin on his face.

Matilda swallowed, inching forwards and spoke out loud among the group for the first time. "A perfect hiding place." She finished for the Time Lord, inclining her head. But yet, deep down, there was something unnerving about the scene before them. She eyed several dozen of the broken, damaged looking statues, shaking her head as the anxious feeling continued to bubble and expand in her gut.

"I guess this makes it a bit trickier." Octavian stated.

"Huh, a bit, yeah." The Doctor muttered, shaking his head slightly as he moved a couple of steps away from his spot.

Octavian spoke again. "A stone Angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for." He shone his torch over a large, headless statue that was almost entirely obscured by shadows.

"A needle in a hay stack." The older blonde breathed.

"A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle of death. A hay-alike needle of death in a haystack of, er...statues." Matilda turned where she stood, turning her worried gaze away from the dozens of damaged statues and shining her torch onto the dark shadows that hadn't been fully illuminated far behind the group. "No, yours was fine."

Father Octavian spoke to his Clerics, a look of dissatisfaction and worry on his face. "Right. Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection. One question. How do we fight it?" He directed his inquiry towards the Doctor, who turned to the leader and automatically replied.

"We find it! And hope." And then, he marched off. Matilda watched as Amy sprung off after him, pursing her lips and wavering for a moment before following the pair. Just as she was trailing off, she saw the woman in camouflage to her left suddenly stop mid-step, as she too went to follow the two. The strawberry blonde turned her head to see Octavian with his hand clasped on the woman's shoulder, a cold look in his eye.

"He doesn't know yet, does he?" He muttered lowly, eyeing the woman as she turned her head to watch the pair disappear. She tensed, and twisted her head to Matilda who had stopped too. She turned her head to the woman, a bit of an upset look on her face as the Bishop continued. "Who and what you are." River swallowed, her eyes still transfixed on the younger woman. The look of upset quickly disappeared from her face and was replaced by one of gentle warning.

She would be fine.

Matilda nodded once in understanding and walked ahead, not throwing the pair another look as she went to follow the Doctor and the Scottish young woman.

* * *

The blonde rounded a corner, trailing her torch around as she went, not really keeping a proper eye on her path ahead. She stumbled back a bit and froze to a stop when a bright light was shone into her eyes. She turned her head away and stepped out of the torch's line of light, wincing against the harsh brightness.

"Didn't I tell you not to wander off?" The Doctor demanded, a bit of an annoyed look on his face and still purposely shining the light into her eyes. She scowled and batted the torch gently away from her, glaring at the man as her vision adjusted slowly.

"No, you didn't actually." She snipped back, eyeing the irritated look that marred his features, noting how there was something hidden beneath it. "And I didn't, by the way, you both just ran off. I decided I'd walk at my own pace."

He sighed, shaking his head. "Well, don't. No wandering off, not on your own. Not today. In fact, stay with me." He grabbed her hand, intertwining his fingers with her own and began to walk back along the path; tugging her behind him. She frowned at his actions and odd behaviour, trying to keep up with his long strides. They passed Amy on their way but the Doctor only threw her a glance as the red-head carefully poked and rubbed at the corner of her eye. Matilda tried to stop beside the ginger and ask if she was alright, but the man continued to hurry past and drag the young woman behind.

Amy was too distracted to notice the pair as they passed.

"Do I wander off a lot then?" Matilda sighed as they stopped in front of one of the disintegrated statues, the Doctor shining his torch on the worn features of the face.

He licked his lips, not removing his analysing gaze from the statue. "Yes. Too often and sometimes too far." He released her hand to remove a device out of his back pocket.

"That's good to know." She replied, not fazed by the frown that appeared on his face as he went completely silent. Something caught her attention before she could continue—a torch light, which was being shone in their direction. She turned her head to look at the older blonde in camouflage who had an amused look on her face, staring directly at the Doctor. She opened her mouth to speak.

"Yes, we are."

The Doctor from beside her didn't remove his eye from the device in his hands, stabbing at a few of the buttons. "Sorry, what?"

"Talking about you."

A small smile appeared on Matilda's face as the Doctor off-handedly replied. "I wasn't listening. I'm busy."

"Ah," The blonde tilted her head closer towards the Scottish red-head beside her, nodding her head down. "The other way up." Matilda turns her head back to the Doctor and watches as the man straightens slightly and pulls the device away from his studying, annoyed stare. He rotates the piece of technology so it's the right way round, a bemused look on his face as he twists his head to eye the older blonde.

Matilda couldn't contain the grin off her face and let out a breathless chuckle as the Doctor muttered a quiet, "Yeah."

"I like you." The strawberry blonde shook her head at the older woman, a gleam in her eyes as she folded her arms across her chest, rocking back on her heels. "I like you a lot."

The woman let out a laugh, a grin of her own becoming wider as she shrugged a little. "Of course you do, sweetie. I've always been your favourite." She lightly teased, raising her eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

Matilda bounced a bit on the spot. "I have favourites?" She twisted herself to throw the Doctor a little grin, who was instead eyeing the woman in camouflage with a withering look. "I don't even know her _name _yet and she's able to give a bit more of an in insight into what's going on?" She cocked an eyebrow at the man but turned away when he finally adjusted his gaze onto her. She was surprised to find yet another upset look on the woman's face when she looked back at her.

"You don't know who I am?"

Matilda's grin fell and she felt suddenly very guilty by the look on the woman's face and slowly, she shook her head. The blonde swallowed, an odd look passing over the look of sadness, one that Matilda couldn't quite place, and she straightened slightly.

"Dr. River Song. You'll be seeing a bit more of me." She forced a smile onto her face.

Amy, sensing the odd atmosphere between the four, decided to intervene. "Oh, and she's so his wife." She threw a look towards the Doctor, who was frowning deeply to himself and fiddling the device in his hands still. Matilda laughed at this as River shook her head, the gleam returning to her eyes.

"Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy. This is the Doctor we're talking about. Do you really think it could be anything that simple?" She asked lightly, torch still pointed in the Time Lord's direction. He threw a bewildered look at the two and then towards Matilda, who was standing a metre or so away, a smile still intact on her face and her eyes still folded over her chest. He shoved the device into his back pocket, shaking his head to himself. He quickly went back to inspecting the statues.

The sound of gunfire echoes from the underground site and the four immediately turn rigid as they hear the weapon being fired. All turn in the general direction of where the sound had occurred, including Matilda, and immediately the Doctor rushes off back down the way they had come from. The three woman followed, River at the front and Matilda at the back, her eyes darting around the shadows for any sign of danger as well as keeping the young woman in front of her in the blonde's line of vision.

When they arrived, they found a young man sheepishly apologising to the Bishop; a shameful look on his face. "Sorry, sorry. I thought... I thought it looked at me."

"We know what the Angel looks like. Is that the Angel?" Octavian demanded lowly, an exasperated look on his face.

The young Cleric blinked down at his gun and back to the Bishop. The look on his face reminded Matilda of a kicked puppy. "No, sir."

"No, sir, it is not." The Bishop snapped. "According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil, so it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of decor."

The Doctor interrupted the two, leaning his hand against the wall as he directly spoke to the young Cleric. "What's your name?"

The young man turned himself slightly to face the Time Lord, a worried, anxious look on his face. "Bob, sir." Matilda smiled softly at this, sympathising for the nervous bloke.

"Ah, that's a great name. I love Bob."

"It's a Sacred Name. We all have Sacred Names. They're given to us in the service of the Church." The Bishop commented and the Doctor pushed himself up from the wall and approached the pair.

"_Sacred Bob._" He mused, a glint in his eyes. He turned his head quickly to the Cleric. "More like Scared Bob now, eh?"

Bob hesitated. "Yes, sir."

"Ah, good!" He gently slaps a hand onto the Cleric's arm. "Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron." He pauses, turning his head to the Bishop who straightened slightly, eyeing the Doctor with slight irritation. "Carry on." He took a step back or so before turning and walking back to the three woman. Matilda stepped down from behind Amy as the Doctor strode past, her eyes fixed on the Bishop and Bob as Octavian called to his Clerics.

"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes. You stay with Christian and Angelo." He commanded Bob. "Guard the approach." Bob nodded, breathing out shakily and steadying himself on the spot; his gun ready and a look of determination passing over his face. Octavian turned away from the Cleric and approached the others, and Matilda lingered for a moment where she was, arms crossed and wavering on the spot slightly.

Two minutes.

She jumped down from the two steps and approached the young Cleric, pursing her lips. When she arrived beside him, Bob didn't manage to notice her presence, only eyeing up the shadows with the same anxious, cautious look in his eyes. Just as she went to open up her mouth to speak to him, he suddenly noticed her stood beside him and jumped on the spot, his eyes widening at her appearance and automatically he took a tentative step away from her.

"Hey!" She raised her hands in defence in attempt to calm him, feeling bad that she'd snuck up to the clearly already nervous Cleric so quietly as she had done. "It's alright, don't panic! Just me, not the Angel." She gave him a reassuring smile, watching as he visibly relaxed. He swallowed, biting his lip before straightening.

"What's the matter, ma'am?"

Matilda pulled a face at the young Cleric, pointing a finger at him. "None of that '_ma'am__'_' nonsense, Bob. You can call me Matilda." She gave him a genuine smile, hoping that the others weren't rushing off too far ahead. Bob flushed slightly, bowing his head to look down at his feet and swallowed, nodding.

"What is the matter...Matilda?" He tested her name carefully on his lips, hesitantly and with a nervous look on his face.

"Nothing, actually." She places her hand gently onto his upper arm. "I just wanted to come over and tell you that you're doing alright. In fact, you're doing wonderfully well. You're being brilliant. For someone to be a part of a mission to track down '_an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil_'," She repeated what Octavian had said before in a lower tone and pulling a slight face, watching as Bob tried to prevent the little grin from stretching onto his lips. He failed. "You're doing just fine. Just wanted to mention it, you know, because it seems to me that you haven't been told so enough."

Cleric Bob flushed again, the ashamed, nervous look on his face that was there minutes ago was now replaced by a brighter, more confident one. Not by very much, of course, he still appeared fairly terrified, but nevertheless, a bit better.

"Thank you, M—"

"_Matilda!_" The Doctor bellowed from round the corner. Matilda winced and let her head droop down as she let out a loud, exasperated sigh, hearing Bob's soft chuckle at the blonde's reaction. She raised her head again, and immediately, the pair was laughing.

"Goodbye, Bob."

Bob smiled, straightening and nodding at Matilda as she turned to walk away. "Goodbye, Matilda."

* * *

Matilda walked alongside the Doctor, his hand tightly holding her own as she walked. River and Amy followed behind with the other Clerics following suit, everyone shining their torches on the path as they went.

"Are we there yet? It's a hell of a climb." Amy whined and Matilda couldn't help but feel the same. Compared to Amy's choice of footwear, the blonde was only wearing a pair of black flats, and they were beginning to wear above the rubble of the path beneath her feet.

"The Maze is on six levels, representing the ascent of the soul. Only two levels to go." River smoothly replied.

The Doctor swung his and Matilda's hands back and forth, opening his mouth to speak. "Lovely species, the Aplans. We should visit them some time." He threw a look towards the blonde and turned his head to Amy who was following closely behind.

"I thought they were all dead?"

"So is Virginia Woolf. I'm on her bowling team..." He pointed out, pausing for a second before back to speaking about the Aplans. "Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. Well, that's having two heads, of course. You're never short of a snog with an extra head." He waved his torch from side to side before turning his attention to one of the statues. He once again released his hold on the blonde's hand and held his torch with both of his own hands, eyeing the worn statue from afar.

River appeared on the Doctor's right, leaning close to him as she worriedly spoke her distressed concerns out loud. "Doctor, there's something. I don't know what it is."

"Yeah..." The Doctor agreed. "there's something wrong. Don't know what it is yet, either. Working on it. Of course, then they started having laws against self-marrying. I mean, what was that about? But that's the Church for you." He paused, flashing Octavian a not entirely apologetic look. "Er, no offence, Bishop."

As Octavian replied to the Doctor's comment, Matilda took a couple of steps forward, narrowing her eyes on the shoulders of the statue in front of her. The anxious, unnerving feeling inside of her hadn't died away and if anything, if only seemed to grow and swell inside of her; making her uneasy and want to stay far, far away from the shadows around the group.

She knew that River was right, that there wasn't something quite right here, and she wasn't entirely sure herself.

"Did they look like us then?" She wondered out loud, but no one really bothered to answer her question. "Hang on, didn't you lot say this place was a maze of the dead?"

"The Church had a point, if you think about it. The divorces must have been messy..." Amy chimed in as Matilda followed the group, trailing her torch over as many statue as she could when passing them.

The Doctor suddenly slowed to a stop, his light fixed on the head of one of the statues as he breathed out a quiet, "Oh." Everyone except from River Song and Matilda turned to face the Time Lord, frowning at his sudden change in demeanour. Both of the blondes were staring at the statue too.

"What's wrong?"

Something suddenly dawned on River. "Oh."

The Doctor turns his head to face Dr. Song, breathing out the word, "Exactly."

"How could we have not noticed that?" She hissed.

"Low level perception filter, or maybe we're _thick._" He seethed, turning right and then back tot he left towards the statue, panic appearing on his face. Octavian began to ask what the matter was, but the Doctor cut him off, becoming more frantic by the moment. "Nobody move. Nobody move. Everyone stay exactly where they are. Bishop, I am truly sorry. I've made a mistake and we are all in terrible danger."

Matilda continued to stare at the statue intently, narrowing her eyes and studying where the light of the torch was trained on.

_'Lovely species, the Aplans...' _

_'Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. Well, that's having two heads, of course.'_

The penny didn't drop, it was practically launched downwards, plummeting down and down until it hit Matilda bang in the face. She rocked back on her heels, her eyes widening in horror as her mind clicked on after decoding what had been said only moments ago.

"The Aplans." She muttered, taking a step back beside Amy who hadn't figured out what the problem was yet.

"The Aplans?" Octavian frowned in bemusement.

River continued for Matilda, a severely tense look on her face. "They've got two heads."

"Yes, I get that. So?"

"So why don't the statues?" The Doctor murmured lowly, prodding the Bishop with the painfully obvious factor that they had been all too blind to miss. "Everyone, over there. Just move. Don't ask questions, don't speak." He pointed his torch off further to his left and immediately, everyone began to comply to his request. Matilda and Amy followed the Clerics and River followed behind, an annoyed, spooked look on her face as she went to stand beside the two other woman. The Doctor stood off to the right in front of the group after positioning them so they were away from the majority of the visible statues. "Okay, I want you all to switch off your torches."

"Sir..."

"Just do it." One by one, they all switched their torches off until they were left with the only one on, which was his own. The darkness drew close in on them immediately. "Okay. I'm going to turn off this one too, just for a moment."

River swallowed. "Are you sure about this?"

Someone's hand slipped into Matilda's hand and when she looked down, she was surprised to see it was Amy's own. The Doctor breathed out and after a moment of hesitation, he replied, "No."

With a click, everything went black and they were enveloped in darkness, but in the next second the Doctor had quickly clicked the torch back on and the light appeared in an instant. The statue that everyone had been initially focusing on and the few stood beside it had moved from where they had faced before, now fully turned and positioned so they were facing the group.

"Oh, my God. They've moved." Amy breathed, her green eyes practically bulging from her head. The Doctor turned and began to dart back down the path from where they had come, stopping briefly and flashing his torch around to the other dozen statues that were all oddly positioned so they were facing the group.

As if they were coming after them.

The Doctor wavered from where he stood. "They're Angels. All of them."

"But they can't be." River denied.

"Clerics, keep watching them." He commanded before rushing off past a statue that was on its knees on the ground; arm outstretched towards the group. The three woman followed, skidding to a stop beside him as he continued. "Every statue in this Maze, every single one, is a Weeping Angel. They're coming after us."

* * *

The Doctor quickly pieced together what little information they had in the situation and came to the realisation that the disintegrated statues had been down here for a long time, losing their image and therefore their power. He also came to the conclusion that the Byzantium hadn't simply accidentally crashed, it had been a rescue mission for the dying angels within the underground space. A dying, worn out army of Weeping Angels were waking up and regaining power from the radiation of the crashed ship, and they were slap bang in the middle of it.

"We need to get out of here, fast." River Song declared smoothly, intently flashing a look towards the deformed statues around them.

Octavian took his radio communicator and spoke into the speaker. "Bob, Angelo, Christian, come in, please. Any of you, come in." He took a step or so away from the group, waiting for his Clerics to hopefully reply.

"It's Bob, sir." Cleric Bob's voice replied on the other end of the line, bringing a small smile to Matilda's lips. "Sorry, sir."

"Bob, are Angelo and Christian with you? All the statues are active. I repeat, all the statues are active."

"I know, sir. Angelo and Christian are dead, sir. The statues killed them, sir." The Doctor crept up behind Octavian and hastily reached over the Bishop's shoulder to snatch the communicator from the leader.

"Bob, Sacred Bob, it's me, the Doctor." He spoke to the young Cleric as the Bishop glared at the Time Lord, clearly irritated from the rude action.

"I'm talking to—!"

The Doctor spoke over him. "Where are you now?"

"I'm talking to my—!" Father Octavian tried again, but the Doctor interrupted him again, raising his finger and placing it inches from the man's face.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up."

Bob replied to the Doctor. " I'm on my way up to you, sir. I'm homing in on your signal."

"Ah, well done, Bob!" The Doctor praised. "Scared keeps you fast. Told you, didn't I? Your friends, Bob. What did the Angel do to them?"

"They snapped their necks, sir." Bob replied instantly and without a trace of emotion. Matilda's smile fell and she shared a worried look with River, noting how Amy's gaze flickered down to her feet in discomfort. There was something admittedly odd with the way the young Cleric was acting, how there wasn't very much emotion in his tone when he commented on the fate of his fellow Clerics. Some people would panic, some people would have their words stuck in their throat as they tried to bravely confirm that the people they had been with had been killed. Even the most calm and collected person would've had some sort of regret or sincerity in their words.

But suddenly anxious, quiet Cleric Bob didn't sound too bothered about it at all.

"That's odd. That's not how the Angels kill you," The Doctor paced a bit. "They displace you in time. Unless they needed the bodies for something."

Octavian snatched back his communicator. "Bob, did you check their data packs for vital signs? We may be able to initiate a rescue plan." This made the Doctor roll his eyes and quickly grab hold of the radio once again and yank it out of the Bishop's grasp.

"Oh, don't be an idiot! The Angels don't leave you alive!" He raised the communicator to his lips. "Bob, keep running. But tell me, how did you escape?"

"I didn't escape, sir. The Angel killed me, too." The Cleric replied plainly. Everyone remained silent as they let his words sink in. Matilda felt herself rock back on her heels slightly and the colour drain from her face. Immediately and as gently as she could without hurting the red-head, she yanked her hand away from Amy's warm own one and took step away from her, her eyes fixed on the ground and not daring to gaze back at the worried look she received from the other woman.

"What do you mean, the Angel killed you? "

Bob replied again, "Snapped my neck, sir. Wasn't as painless as I expected, but it was pretty quick, so that was something." Matilda winced.

"If you're dead, how can I be talking to you?"

"You're not talking to me, sir. The Angel has no voice. It stripped my cerebral cortex from my body and re-animated a version of my consciousness to communicate with you." Matilda squeezed her eyes shut, slowly breathing in through her nose. "Sorry about the confusion."

The Doctor pursed his lips. "So when you say you're on your way up to us...?"

"It's the Angel that's coming, sir, yes. No way out."

* * *

They'd all been commanded to run towards the Byzantium, but on their way Matilda noticed that Amy had frozen to a sudden stop. Matilda skidded to a stop and turned to face the Scottish woman, eyebrows drawn together and swallowing as she tried to gather her words together.

"Amy." She muttered, taking a step back towards to the ginger. "We've got to go. Now." She couldn't force a reassuring smile onto her face, she couldn't will her words to come out smoothly and with a friendly tone. Amy was frowning down at her hand, still unmoving. "_Amy_." Matilda warned, her fists clenching as she tried to keep her anger at bay. "Come _on_."

Amy reluctantly looked up at the blonde, shaking her head. "Just go."

"And _leave _you to get your neck snapped by a bulk of living stone?" Matilda snapped, her eyes trailing up and down Amy's tall, thin frame. Her gaze landed on the hand that clasped onto a bulk of rock; Amy's long, slender fingers wrapped around the top of the rock face as if they were claws. "Amy, let go of the rock." She ordered, placing her own hand over the ginger's. Amy's hand firmly didn't budge from the rock, despite how Matilda had squeezed and if not pinched the surface a few times. It didn't seem to effect the woman.

Before Amy can reply, they hear the falling of running footsteps in their direction and Matilda spots the Doctor out of her peripheral vision rounding the corner and about to run past them on the path, his torch still in one hand and the communicator now obviously slipped away into one of his pockets.

"Don't wait for me! Go, run." As he went past, he grabbed onto Matilda's arm as he went; dragging her along with him a couple of long, running strides as she protested. She stumbles along beside him, trying to dig her feet into the rubble as they go, but the grip on her flats were terrible and she only manages to skid on the spot.

Luckily, Amy spoke up behind them and manages to get the Doctor to stop on his retreat. "I can't." Matilda twists her arm away from The Doctor and hurries back to Amy with the Doctor as they peer down at her hand in confusion. "No, really, I can't."

The Doctor leans close to her face, eyes searching her own. "Why not?"

"Look at it!" Amy commands as the Doctor snaps his head down to look at her pale hand. "Look at my hand. It's stone!"

The Doctor flashed his torch into Amy's green eyes, ignoring the scowl that formed on her lips as he spoke. "You looked into the eyes of an Angel, didn't you?"

"I couldn't stop myself. I tried."

"Listen to me. It's messing with your head. Your hand is not made of stone." He turned to Matilda. "Go, you need to run."

Amy cut in, growing more annoyed by the second. "It is. Look at it."

"It's in your mind, I promise you. You can move that hand. You can let go." He replied lowly, turning back to Amy and staring intently into her eyes.

"I can't, okay?" She snapped with an exasperated, fed up look on her features. "I've tried and I can't. It's stone."

The torches in their grasps began to flicker. Matilda came up beside the Doctor, a grim look intact. "Right, if you don't yank her off of that bloody rock, I will. Amy, _your hand_, is _not _stone. So for the love of God, _let. Go._"

"The Angel is going to come and it's going to turn this light off, and then there's nothing I can do to stop it, so do it. Concentrate. Move your hand." He turned his head to Matilda, something dark flashing in his eyes. "Matilda Falconer, I won't ask you again."

"I can't."

"Then we're going to die." He quipped without a beat.

Amy frowned. "You're not going to die."

"They'll kill the lights." Matilda kept her flickering torch on the statues silently, not wanting to interrupt the two again after the Doctor lowly told her to run. Although she knew that she was not supposed to be here or seen, she was much better off not heard right now.

"You've got to go, both of you. You know you have. You've got all that stuff with River and that's all got to happen, you've got a future with Mattie! You know you can't die here."

The Doctor peered over her shoulder. "Time can be re-written. It doesn't work like that." The statues were beginning to advance quickly now. The Time Lord twisted his body slightly to Matilda, his green eyes narrowing in further anger. A warning. She sighed, keeping her torch trained on the approaching statues before glancing down at Amy's completely normal, slender hand hand that was very clearly flesh and not stone.

Her cue to leave, she went to turn, but before she did she leaned close to his face and muttered quietly, "I've already tried, but she needs a bit more of a pinch." And with that, she took several steps away from the approaching statues and began to head towards the group that were waiting.

* * *

The group was stood beneath the Byzantium which was situated high up above them and the Bishop declared that there was no climbing equipment for them to reach the crashed ship, as if they would even have the time for that anyway. The Doctor had managed to snap Amy out of her hallucination that her hand was made of stone and joined the group a minute after Matilda had arrived, the Time Lord taking note that the Angels were the ones responsible for the light from their torches and the gravity globe to keep flickering out.

River Song kept calm as she spoke, pointing out that they had no way of escaping. "No pressure, but this is usually when you have a really good idea." Her gaze burned into the back of the Doctor's head as she remained still for a few moments.

"There's always a way out." He muttered to himself. Seconds after saying so, the lights entirely went out for a fraction of a second and flickered on once again, revealing several statues heading their way, their arms outstretched to the group. "There's always a way out!" He shone his torch on the advancing Angels.

"Doctor?" Cleric Bob's voice was heard from the radio communicator. "Can I speak to the Doctor, please?"

The Doctor snagged the communicator from a pocket within his tweed jacket. "Hello, Angels. What's your problem?

"Your power will not last much longer, and the Angels will be with you shortly. Sorry, sir."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"There's something the Angels are very keen you should know before the end."

"Which is?" The Doctor inquired.

"I died in fear."

The Doctor's eyebrows were raised as he wavered for a moment. "I'm sorry?"

"You told me my fear would keep me alive, but I died afraid, in pain and alone. You made me trust you, and when it mattered, you let me down." Matilda's shoulders sagged as well as other members of the group, whereas the Doctor's rose and drooped several times in anger.

Amy leaned close to River's ear and muttered quietly, "What are they doing?"

River replied slowly and carefully, her eyes fixed on the back of the man. "They're trying to make him angry."

"I'm sorry, sir. The Angels were very keen for you to know that." Bob paused for a moment, before suddenly asking, "Is Matilda there? Can I speak to Matilda, sir?"

One by one, everyone turns their eyes briefly to the strawberry-blonde who stood rigid in her place, her eyes widening at the mention of her name and her heart pounding in her ears as silence fell among the group. The Doctor turned slowly to face the girl, a blank, odd look on his face as she chews the inside of her cheek in anticipation and worry. He rocks slightly on his feet, opening his mouth to say something, anything, but then shuts it again.

Matilda takes a tentative step forward and hold her hand out for the communicator; a firm, calm look on her face. She comes to stand in front of him, nodding once at the radio and waiting patiently for him to hand it to her. She couldn't help but briefly wonder if he would comply and give it to the woman.

He slowly hands it to the blonde, who raises it to her lips and presses down onto the button on the side before speaking.

"Hello?"

She didn't know what to expect, she wasn't sure if Bob was going to announce that she was going to announce that she was the first to be killed, whether he was going to actually reveal that he wasn't in fact dead and was being held hostage by the living statues. She hoped for the latter, she hoped that he was still alive somewhere.

"You're doing alright." Bob's voice replied moments later, calm and in his light, emotionless tone. "You're doing wonderfully well. You're being brilliant for someone who is about to have their neck snapped within the next hour. The Angels wanted me to tell you this, Matilda," She stared blankly down at the ground as he continued. "Because they were amused with your kindness and would like to see you afraid, like I was."

Matilda didn't look anyone in the eye as she swallowed down the lump in her throat, her gaze flickering up slightly towards one of the rock surfaces off in front of her. "Thank you...Bob." She replied into the radio, releasing the button and automatically, Bob's voice was heard again.

"Goodbye, Matilda." She handed the Doctor the communicator, refusing to look him in the eye as he took it. The Time Lord watched the blonde closely as she stepped away, turning her gaze to the approaching statues that advanced closer when the lights flickered off each time.

"The Angels have made their second mistake because I'm not going to let that pass." He averted his gaze away from the woman. "I'm sorry you're dead, Bob, but I swear to whatever is left of you, they will be sorrier."

"But you're trapped, sir, and about to die. "

The Doctor peered to the Byzantium above and turning around. "Yeah. I'm trapped. And you know what? Speaking of traps, this trap has got a great big mistake in it. A great big, whopping mistake." He spun on the spot again.

"What mistake, sir?" Bob's voice asked.

"Trust me?" The Time Lord turned to the ginger Scot, eyeing her intently as Amy smiled slightly and replied,

"Yeah."

He turned to River Song. "Trust me?"

"Always." She inclined her head, eyebrows raising.

"You lot, trust me?" He directed to the Clerics and their Bishop.

"Sir, two more incoming!"

Octavian nodded, a calm yet amused look in his eye. "We have faith, sir."

The Doctor turned himself to the strawberry blonde who still stood staring into space in the general direction of the statues and stepped in front of her, leaning down so he could stare straight into her eyes. He successfully caught her attention; her eyes readjusting and focusing on his face.

"Do you trust me?" He asked, a serious, firm look on his face, the light tone disappearing from his words. She took a step back from him, not wanting to be so close to anyone at that moment in time, but instead of respecting her need for space he only closed the distance between the pair of them. "Matilda, _do you trust me?_"

She eyed him cooly, her eyes trailing down and up his body once. "I don't have any other choice." From the grim look that appeared in his eye, she could tell that he didn't want that response at all. She sighed. "But yes."

He forced a smile to his face and began to click his fingers at the Bishop, his head bowing towards the leader's gun holster. "Right, give me your gun." The Bishop complied, reaching behind him for his weapon without hesitation. He handed the gun to the man in front of him and they all watched as the Doctor fiddled with the firearm. "I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. When I do, jump!" He jumped once on the spot for a demonstration, peering at them all.

"Jump where?"

"Just jump, high as you can. Come on, leap of faith, Bishop! On my signal." He craned his head towards the gravity globe.

"What signal?"

"You won't miss it." The Doctor snipped, raising the gun in his hand towards the gravity globe that still hovered above them; flickering occasionally under the Angel's power.

"Sorry, can I ask again?" Bob's voice was heard once again from the communicator. "You mentioned a mistake we made."

The Doctor paced back and forth on the spot, rocking about as he replied. "Oh, big mistake. Huge. Didn't anyone every tell you there's one thing you never put in a trap? If you're smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there is one thing you never, ever put in a trap." He rambled, dark gaze fixed upon where he was pointing the gun.

"And what would that be, sir?"

Everyone shot a look towards the armed man, waiting as he lingered with his answer, letting the question fall into the silence. Matilda's lips twitched up into a ghost of a smile, shaking her head slightly as she prepared to jump.

"_Me._"

He pulled the trigger and a loud gun shot erupted; the sound echoing off the stone walls of the underground site. The gravity globe explodes.

**PART 2 OF THE TIME OF THE ANGELS!**

**Urgh. I'm glad it's finished though as it's practically taken up the most of my Sunday as I obsessively and furiously type away each word and endless line. **

**Bleh. Hope it was alright, I'll go back and finish mistakes later if I find any, so excuse me if you've spotted some. Poor Bob. I liked Bob, he was like a sad little puppy, you know? Sacred Bob. **

**Ah.**

**Um, I'll update soon; _Flesh and Stone _will most likely be split into two, or perhaps even three chapters. We'll see. **

**I have an exam tomorrow and I've not done very much revision. Oops.  
**

**Hope you're all enjoying it so far! :D **


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